


Golden Days

by MayumiSato



Series: Omegaverse Jewels: A series of different stories with different combinations of omegaverse [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-05-10 04:32:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14729997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayumiSato/pseuds/MayumiSato
Summary: Arthur Kirkland was a famous beta actor in the time of silent films. However, times change and now there are many new stars around, like the charming and young alpha actor Alfred F. Jones, who Arthur absolutely will grow to hate(and then love).





	1. Stolen Moments

A screen appears and there is the following scenario: A tumultuous street on a hot night in 1925. It's outside the Royale Theater, where it just happened the premiere of an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, debuting none other than the great heartthrob of his time: Arthur James Kirkland.

A zoom in the image shows the face of Arthur Kirkland, our protagonist. He has a jovial and cheerful face and is waving to his fans outside the movie theater. Arthur Kirkland is a twenty-one-year-old beta. A single look already reveals he has all the beauty features ideal for his time: a mix of traces of omega and alpha, with large shoulders and some muscles, but also a slender body and some curves.

Many omegas in the crowd shout out his name, trying to get his attention. He's a sex symbol, after all, and he's particularly well-dressed that day with a tailored brown suit and a nice hat. Little did alphas and other betas among his fans know that they too would have a chance with this handsome actor. Arthur Kirkland swings both… actually, all the ways. He just wants to have fun.

A journalist approaches Arthur as he walks on the red carpet, just about to get into his car.

"I just saw your movie and let me tell you! I'm sure it will be another great success! You're a perfect Romeo! There's no doubt about it!"

"Why, thank you very much. You are too kind,"Arthur smiles politely.

"Am I detecting a British accent?" the journalist asks in surprise. Arthur's accent is always a surprise to his audience, since the movies he works on don’t require him to use his voice. Over time, it has become tedious to always explain how he came to move from England to America to every new journalist who met him, and now he just avoids the subject.

"I really need to go now. Do you have any questions about the movie?" he asks, looking impatiently at his pocket watch.

"Yes, I do!" she says, taking a notepad out of her pocket and beginning to write on it. "What do you have to say about the movie that everyone is talking about? You know, _'A singer at the piano._ '"

Oh yeah. “A singer at the piano”. That movie that had actors actually talking. Big bloody deal.

Arthur's agent had asked him not to speak on the subject. The movie was a huge hit. Possibly,  more of those ‘talkies’ would be produced and maybe eventually Arthur would have to be part of them. Therefore, it isn’t the greatest idea for him to say what he really think about this kind of film.

Still, he can subtly let his opinion on the general subject recorded, alright?

"Oh, pardon me. I don’t know more about the movie other than the fact that, well, actors speak in it. For some reason, this seems to be the only aspect that has caught everyone's attention about it,” Arthur smiles sardonically. He's pulling his limits and he's aware of it. However, he can’t resist taking the opportunity to vent a bit about his disdain for how enchanted the audiences were with something so silly. "If you want my honest opinion, I think ..."

Before Arthur says something that would destroy his chances of getting a job in the next few years, he is interrupted by the voice of a child shouting his name and the mother of the child in question quarreling with him and telling him to behave.

Arthur always tries to be particularly kind to children, even though he is rather clumsy with them. He had had a very difficult childhood and the few adult figures who paid attention and respect to him had a great positive impact on his life. Remembering them, he always makes an effort to be considerate of his younger fans.

Leaving the journalist aside, he approaches the boy and his mother. He has bright, curious eyes and is holding tightly to the safety fence that separates him from the red carpet, as if he would break it with his hands if he could.

"Arthur Kirkland?!" the boy asks in a gasping voice. "Are you THE Arthur Kirkland?!"

"Yes, that would be me," Arthur laughs, holding out his hand to the boy. It's a bit of an adult gesture. Despite his good intentions, Arthur simply doesn’t know how to deal with children, after all.

The boy completely ignores his hand.

"Wow! I can’t believe! You're even cooler up-close! Just wait until the other kids in my school know that I've met THE Arthur Kirkland!"

The boy's mother gives an apologetic smile to Arthur and explains in a slightly embarrassed voice:

"He's a big fan... He watched all your movies. He has many posters of your adventure movies in his bedroom. He says his dream is to become a hero like you."

Arthur smiles sincerely at this. He is glad he is being a good influence for the kids, even if it is just through his fictional characters. In the movies, Arthur was always the hero. A noble figure, brave and full of ideals, always ready to save the day. He thinks it’s swell that even if in real life he is a dull flawed person, thanks to the movies, he could inspire kids to become much better people than him.

"Is all that true?" he checks with the boy, pointing to his mother.

"Yes, sir! One day, I want to be in a movie with you!" the boy says, clenching his fists in excitement. Oh, so he was saying he wanted to be a hero in the same sense that Arthur was a hero. A movie hero. Huh…

"How old are you?"

“Eleven!”

“Very well. I started acting when I was your age, so if you start working hard on your acting now, maybe you can share a screen with me in ten years time,” Arthur pats the boy’s head.

The boy seems surprisingly excited by this realistic consolation.

"I'll do my best, sir!" he promises.

With that said, Arthur feels that his duty as a good figure of influence to the children is done and says goodbye to the boy and his mother, starting to walk away. However, the boy holds his arm in place and request repetitively:

"Please! Please give me an autograph, Mr. Kirkland!"

Oh, blimey. An autograph, of course! How could he forget the essentials?

"Yes, of course! Do you have something for me to autograph?"Arthur asks.

The boy doesn’t have anything. The mother desperately searches for something in her purse in which Arthur can write and find nothing. The boy makes a huge pout, looking immensely frustrated.

Arthur has to improvise to solve the problem. He takes a cigarette case out of the top pocket of his coat, puts the last cigarette of it in his mouth and gestures for the boy's mother to pass her pen to him.

"What's your name, boy?" he asks, opening the package to use the paper from the inside to write.

"Alfred! Alfred John Ford!" little Alfred says enthusiastically.

'To Alfred John Ford, a boy with big dreams, my sincere wishes that they come true. From Arthur James Kirkland”, Arthur writes in the package and Alfred receives it as if it’s gold falling into his hands.

With the satisfaction of making a child smile, Arthur happily goes home, to spend some time with his cats and a bottle of moonshine.

 

* * *

 

Arthur Kirkland has never forgotten the details of that night, for it turned out to be the last one in which he got out at good spirits of a premiére.

The movie he criticized on his premiere eventually became an influence for the entire movie industry. Despite his and other actors' resistance to talkies, they proved to be a great financial success, and in the end that was what really interested the studios.

From that year on, they slowly but inevitably started replacing silent films. Artists who couldn’t accept progress were gradually being left behind. Arthur didn’t want to be one of those.

Although he thought that talkies limited his ability to perform, he did his best to stay in movie theaters and to get used to having to act while always considering the position of the microphone. However, it wasn’t his now limited potential in front of the cameras the real reason why Arthur's career declined, though. It was something he couldn’t exactly control… His accent.

His unmistakably British accent, apparently, didn’t go well with American movie scripts. Whenever he applied for the male lead role, the director said, "Excuse me, but this isn’t an English hero," or "This character isn’t really the posh type, you know?" There was a certain image that Americans naturally projected into a character with an English accent and this image wasn’t of a brave protagonist, willing to face all kinds of danger. For some reason, Americans just thought everything he said was fancy. Even when Arthur was swearing, people still thought that what he said was fancy. That was fucking bollocks.

Arthur could have tried to disguise his accent by taking diction classes, but he decided not to go that route. He was proud of his accent. He had to leave England behind but he didn’t want to leave his English identity behind.

With Arthur and other famous male leads of his time having trouble getting jobs, a new wave of actors emerged alongside with  a new parameter of male beauty.

In the old days, a movie star was usually a beta. The subtlety of their physical traces was considered charming. Now tall, muscular alphas were considered an epitome of beauty. A physical type drastically different from the one in which Arthur fit and something that definitely didn’t help his return to the screens.

Arthur Kirkland spent three years without a job. He was always mindful of his expenses and had a modest lifestyle and that ensured he didn’t go broke at the time. Still, it was so damn depressing to be simply spending all day at home, drinking bottles and bottles of fake rum, with his cats walking over his lap and meowing worriedly. Cinema was his passion. He had to go back to the big screens.

The only way for Arthur to continue in the movies was to abandon his usual prominent position and accept to reinvent himself as an actor and that he did. He soon discovered that for some reason his accent wasn’t that big of a thing when the role he was looking for was that of a villain.

He knocked on the door of every studio that had a new movie and in need of someone for the role of villain, and little by little he managed to rebuild his career. At thirty-one, Arthur Kirkland was no longer a household name, but he was always called when someone wanted an actor who could make a good villain with few scenes. He became known for hardly refusing a role and for getting good scenes in a few takes.

Unfortunately, often the roles he had to do were simply ridiculous. When he was younger, he never thought he would do a flat as a board character, with a cliche evil laughter and a ridiculous fake mustache, who wanted to blow up a protagonist with a bomb that would be activated when a mouse chewed a rope that made a glass ball get released and broken on the ground, scaring a horse that would kick in a button positioned just behind him that activated said bomb.

His golden days were far gone.

 

* * *

 

The second scene of our story takes place in a dressing room with various costumes in the background and a dressing table with a huge mirror and makeup items everywhere, occupied by Arthur Kirkland and a young woman with a focused look, who is standing behind him, putting gel on his hair.

Arthur Kirkland's appearance is different from the first scene of this story. He has a few lines of expression on the forehead, deep dark circles under his eyes and one or two wrinkles close to them. Not bad for a villain.

Arthur is reading his screenplay while the woman behind him tries to give a bizarre-villainesque shape to his golden hair strands.

The camera zooms over Arthur's shoulder, allowing us to see the movie title in the script “ _Jonathan Harker vs. Dracul_ a”, as well as the names of part of the cast written on it.

Arthur passes his finger by the name of the male lead, thoughtfully.

"Alfred F. Jones, eh? This kid seems to be getting a bunch of parts all of a sudden. Who did he sleep with?" he comments more to himself than to the hairdresser, but as he said it out loud, she takes it as a opening to start a conversation.

"Particularly, I like his movies," she admits smiling. "He's very attractive."

"Being attractive just reinforces my theory that he must be sleeping with someone up there," Arthur points out acidly, absently flipping through the pages of the script. Most of the lines and best scenes belongs to the hero, even though the villain is also in the title, Arthur silently notices.

"Oh, I don’t think that's it! They say Alfred is a very pure hearted person!" the hairdresser says, putting more tufts of Arthur's hair up. He looks like he has two big horns now. "From what I've heard, Mr. Jones doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink, and is always a gentleman to omegas. He's considered the kind of guy a mother would love to have as a son-in-law!"

“Well, either that's all a part he’s playing or this is the blandest Hollywood star ever," Arthur laughs dryly, letting the script on the table again. "How much gel do you plan to spend on my hair, by the way? I feel it must have turned a rock by now."

"Don’t worry! I'm done!” the hairdresser laughs, taking her hands off his hair and putting them on his shoulders.

Arthur looks himself in the mirror and wonders if this is a joke.

His hair looks like a giant V letter. It's absolutely ridiculous.

“… Bloody hell..”

"With the proper makeup, that hair will look more natural on you. I promise,” the hairdresser tries to comfort him with a small smile that somehow manages to blend pity, guilt and a hint of debauchery at the same time.

"I hope so. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that Jonathan Harker would trust me enough to live in my mansion if my current look is the first impression he will have of me.”

Someone knocks on the dressing room door as soon as he finishes this joke.

"Is Mr. Kirkland there?" someone asks, it’s a young man judging by the voice.

Arthur sighs. For someone to come and bother him so early in the dressing room, it can only be a problem.

“Yes, I am,” he quickly answers.

A small moment of silence occurs, before the same person adds the question:

“Can I come in?”

Arthur and the hairdresser exchange confused looks. He gives a look that clearly expresses the question "should I let this person in?" and the lady, in response, simply shrugs, with a “why would I know?" sort of face.

"Yes, but please don’t delay too long. I'm still getting ready for my scene,"Arthur ends up saying.

And then, the person opens the door and Arthur can’t help but stare at him, with his mouth agape. Oh, lord. That is a handsome lad in front of his eyes. Despite getting to know several conventionally attractive people in his line of job, few of them had that breathtaking effect on Arthur. The man who got in is just that handsome.

The visitor is a young man, wearing a navy blue suit and red tie. He is strong, tall and has broad shoulders. He has a laid-back, confident way of walking, with his hands in his pants’ pockets. He seems absolutely like someone Arthur would accept in his bed.

Who is this guy? He can only be an actor. Also, he would take too much attention from the public to be a secondary character, so he is probably that Jones fella. Shit, the rumors were real. He is attractive.

He arrives in front of Arthur and, to his surprise, puts his arm in the sides of his chair, leaning a bit too close to his face.

"Mr. Kirkland?" he asks with such an endearing smile that Arthur can’t even articulate the words to make a comment about the importance of his personal space.

"... Yes, it's me," Arthur replies, clearing his throat and averting his gaze.

"Oh goodness me! I can’t believe it! It is really you!” the man says, shaking his shoulders enthusiastically. Arthur feels a bit dizzy for a lot of reasons. "To be honest, I didn’t even want to get into such a cheap production as this, because I had received another offer from a great director recently, but when I saw the name of the actor who would play Dracula, I thought  'it can’t be Arthur Kirkland, the old actor, can it?' Haha! I had to check it out! I ended up only accepting the part for your sake, so I'm glad to see it was really you! "

…

A cheap production with an _old actor_ , huh?

An acidic feeling began to bubble up inside Arthur. Everything that guy had said was probably true, but it was hard to hear something like that.

"Why did you want to act with me so badly, Mr. Whoever-the-hell-you-are?" Arthur asks, raising his eyes and taking his visitor's hands off his shoulder. He feels quite immune to his charms now.

"I'm an old fan of yours," the young man says smiling and putting his hands in his pockets again. "Do you remember your premiére of Romeo and Juliet ten years ago?”

Arthur remembers that night but he’s confused by this mention. The bloke in front of him looks a bit young to remember this event himself.

"You look confused. I can see you’re not recognizing me," his visitor laughs. “I don’t blame you for that. You had a lot of fans at that time, after all, and I was just one of them."

_Had._

Acidic bubbles form in a greater intensity within Arthur. He grinds his teeth a little, making a quiet effort to hold his tongue. He knows he has to keep his composure. He would only humiliate himself if he tried to counter that.

"Do you remember a child who asked for an autograph at the premiere? Alfred John Ford?"

Not only does Arthur remember this moment, but specific scenes of that night begin to run through his mind the instant his visitor says that name.

_One day, I want to be in a movie with you!_

_I started acting when I was your age, so if you start working hard on your acting now, maybe you can share a screen with me in ten years._

Shit. No, no. Why this? Why now?

This memory has always been a place of comfort for Arthur. The memory of the premiere of the last successful movie he was in. He wanted to keep his past and present separated for a reason. Now, an old fan was seeing him in a cheap production, fully aware that Arthur could do no better. An old fan was seeing him in that ridiculous hair.

Even worse…

"My agent thought John Ford didn’t sound that good," he said with a chuckle. "So we played around with some letters and I ended up becoming Alfred F. Jones."

His old fan…  had taken Arthur's place.


	2. Angels with Dirty Faces

Despite all of those flashbacks happening in his mind and several turbulent feelings happening in his chest, when Arthur’s face is revealed to us and we get to see what Alfred is seeing, it doesn’t have a single drop of emotion on it. Arthur James Kirkland is, after all, a great actor.

He just looks the same as he would look like if he was waiting in the reception for a dentist’s appointment.

"Sorry, I don’t remember you," he tells Mr. Jones, flatly. Arthur Kirkland can lie effortless. "That was a long time ago."

Mr. Jones looks a little sheepish and visibly disappointed now. Arthur does his best to ignore the pang of guilt he feels at this sight. It's not his fault. He's just taking care of his own well-being. Also, honestly, what real impact would make on a young and attractive rising actor if an old beta actor didn’t remember him? That boy could handle a disappointment or two in his life. It would even be good for character development.

"You really don’t remember?" Alfred asks plaintively "The premiere of Romeo and Juliet. You were…"

He seems to want to make Arthur remember and, oh heavens, now Arthur will have to pretend that he completely forgot every detail about that night. Mr. Jones will probably think he’s suffering from old people memory loss, even though Arthur is only thirty-one, and it will be humiliating and awkward but better than saying something that would make Mr. Jones approach him further and talk about the past.

Arthur is prepared for the worst. Fortunately for him, at this exact moment, they are interrupted by someone who knocks on the door and says:

"Mr. Kirkland? Are you finished with your hair? I have to do your makeup!"

Arthur never had problems with multitasking. He would be perfectly able to get his makeup done and talk to other people at the same time. However, pretending he couldn’t do that was the perfect excuse to escape this terrible social situation and, therefore, it’s exactly what he does.

"Mr. Jones, as you see, I find myself busy at the moment. Could you leave now?" he asks the alpha actor, in a tone that leaves no room for discussion on the subject.

Alfred seems a little taken aback by this dismissal, but as expected from a star, he doesn’t lose his charisma because of it.

"U-Uh... Oh, yeah! Sure! We'll talk later, then!"Alfred says, waving excitedly, as he walks to the dressing room door.

The makeup artist is already waiting there and she seems surprised to see Mr. Jones coming out of Arthur’s dressing room. She blushes a little and exclaims, "Oh, Alfred Jones! I didn’t know you…!" but then she receives a wink from Alfred as he passes her, which renders her unable to continue talking.

Arthur can at least admit to himself that the bloke is pretty charming.

With Mr. Jones out of sight, the makeup artist practically marches towards Arthur's chair, in a stiff position that suggests she's screaming internally, and proceeds to dumps all the contents of her makeup bag on his desk.

"What was Mr. Jones doing here?" she groans, probably to herself, beginning to separate the scattered items from the table into more ordered piles. "I should have put on a better dress! I was completely taken aback! He’s not even recording today!"

Meanwhile, Arthur merely sighs, partly because he is relieved by Mr. Jones exiting the place, partly because he is already resigned to the fact that the two will likely receive completely different treatments from their crew.

At hearing Arthur sighing, the makeup artist stops what she is doing, takes a good look in the mirror, seeming to analyze Arthur's reflection on it and then makes the fatal remark:

"Mr. Kirkland, did somebody got to do your makeup you before I arrived? I swear, you're already looking pale as a vampire!"

Completely different treatments, as he thought.

 

* * *

 

The screen goes dark and then a series of quick scenes appear on it. All these scenes happen in the studio and their content is very similar. In all of them, Mr. Jones approaches Arthur Kirkland between recordings and tries to say something to him, just to be promptly dismissed by Arthur.

_"Hey, Mr. Kirkland! What did you think of ...?"_

_"I am busy."_

*

_"Mr. Kirkland, maybe today we can ...?"_

_"Another day."_

*

_"Mr. Kirkland, are you avoiding me?"_

_"I have no idea where you got this idea from, lad. Now, would you excuse me? I have important plans that can’t be delayed."_

*

All these moments happened in the last couple of days and became pretty much part of Arthur’s routine.

For some reason, Alfred F. Jones continued to try to talk to him after that afternoon in the dressing room. Arthur had no idea of his motives for doing so. It wasn’t as if Arthur was particularly nice, popular, or influential. There was no practical benefit in trying to establish a friendship with him. Maybe it was something more related to Alfred than to Arthur. He was too friendly and too stubborn.

Unfortunately for him, Arthur could be as stubborn as him. When they were not recording, Arthur tried to pretend Mr. Jones didn’t exist at all. He refused to hear rumors about him, to watch  him acting out his scenes and even to imagine what Mr. Jones thought of him now.

It was nothing personal really. Mr. Jones seemed like the kind of person who saved cats from trees and donated all his riches to the poor after growing old. Still, he was a painful reminder of things that Arthur didn’t want to think about. Therefore, Arthur just wanted to reduce as much as possible the emotional impact of the experience of making that movie, by not dealing with Mr. Jones at a personal level. After all, it was difficult enough to deal with him as an actor, considering that he had no talent.

Alfred F. Jones. Tall, handsome, strong… couldn’t act for his life.  

What were his faults?, you may wonder. Very well. These are the ones that Arthur observed.

First, Alfred F. Jones didn’t give any personal space to his co-stars when they acted together. Admittedly, some physical proximity between actors was necessary on talkies so that they could share the hidden microphone but Mr. Jones's case was simply ridiculous. He got way closer than necessary. Once, he almost bumped foreheads with Arthur! There was no breathing space whatsoever. In real life, such a weird fellow would definitely be arrested.

Second, Mr. Jones had a strange acting technique that Arthur (secretly) named "eyebrow performance". Mr. Jones, for some reason, was constantly frowning while he acted. He changed every other detail of his expression according to the mood of the scene, but he kept his brows permanently wrinkled at all of them and sometimes even narrowed his eyes at random moments.  

Sadly, Arthur couldn’t even have fun by seeing those strange flaws in his acting, since the actor who had them was now in the position Arthur used to have in that industry. That was so bloody frustrating. A few years ago, Mr. Jones would have been lucky if he had gotten the role of an extra with that performance. Oh, how lucky are those who are born at the right time, under the right conditions. Mr. Jones didn’t have to do half of Arthur's effort to get everything Arthur fought to archive.

That made Arthur rather bitter, of course, but he tried not to let his feelings interfere in the movie. Despite everything, he still loved his job, so even if the film he was in was a cheap production with a terrible main actor, Arthur still wanted to do his best to bring out the maximum of entertainment and quality possible out of it.  

Since Mr. Jones was an awful actor, Arthur contained his own skills so that the contrast between their acting wasn’t that obvious to the audiences. He thought the director, Francis Bonnefoy, who already worked with him before would notice what he was doing but that didn’t happen. Apparently, nobody cared about the amount of effort Arthur was putting in the scenes anymore. Only one person realized what was happening…

"Hey, Kirkland. Is it me or you changed a bit your acting style?" Mr. Jones asked once after recording a scene. Of course, it had to be him, out of all people, to pay attention to Arthur’s acting skills.

Arthur, of course, gave him the best possible answer he could, all circumstances considered.

"Sorry, lad, I can’t talk right now.”

 

* * *

 

The new setting before your eyes is one of the settings of the studio, at night, during the recording of the scene in which Count Dracula presents his mansion to Jonathan Harker and Mina Harker, who went there on their honeymoon at Transilvania. The grand living room of Dracula's mansion is nothing more than a small setting, set with antique furnishings and chandeliers. It is the lighting and the colors used in that room that give an idea that that space is much bigger and more mystical than it really is.

We can get our first glimpse of the movie's director, sitting in his chair, watching the actors step into their positions. He is a sophisticated beta named Francis Bonnefoy.

He and Arthur slept together a few times many years ago. Today, he'd rather not risk his reputation. All his current lovers are omegas.

Like Arthur, Francis Bonnefoy had been an actor in the past and had to adapt to the new times. Becoming a director of cheap adventure movies worked for him.  Bonnefoy's films are no work of art, but they are loved by his audience, and that is enough for Arthur to keep trying to get roles in them.

Following the direction of Francis' eyes, we can see Arthur is in his standard costume for that movie: black trousers, a white satin blouse with long sleeves and cufflinks, and a black cape with a red background. Oh yeah, of course, he's got horrible V-shaped hair and a makeup that accentuates his pallor and the dark circles under his eyes. He will spend practically the entire film on these clothes. Literally in these clothes. Francis wanted to cut costs so that one single outfit is all Arthur has.  When Arthur pointed out that this would cause a lack of consistency in his clothes state over the movie, Francis, that ridiculous prick, simply said "No one will notice you that much anyway!"

In contrast, Mr. Jones is dressed in one of his many costumes, carefully selected for each scene. He is wearing a classic 19 century outfit, that is brown but will look delightedly grey on the screens,  and he looks just fantastic. He is offering his arm to an omega actress around his age named Lily Smith.

Lily, by the way, is the female lead in the film, with the role of Mina Harker. She is a girl with short, blond hair and blue eyes and she’s wearing for this scene a long white dress and an elegant hat.

Lily is a newbie like Alfred but she doesn’t have the same success as him. Although…  there is a possibility that she will gain immensely success after this movie. Pairing up with a famous actor is a real ladder to fame in Hollywood. Maybe that's why Lily constantly looks at Mr. Jones as if he is her hero, even when they are not recording.

Well, to blazes with everyone else. Today is a good day for Arthur and he is in a rare good mood. He is pretty excited about this scene. Dracula (therefore, him) will show his mansion to the main couple, telling them a bit about his old furniture and letting out a few lines that suggests he is much older than he appears to be.

Certainly, it's not the most important or the most impressive scene that Arthur will be doing in the film, yet it's the scene in which he has more lines and he values it immensely. Other important scenes of him are divided or practically stolen by Mr. Jones, so even if this one is so simple, the fact that he will be leading it, makes this one very special to him.

Probably noticing the little smile on his face, Mr. Jones asks:

"Are you having a good day?"

"Please, don’t disturb me right now," Arthur responds almost automatically. It's getting easier and more natural for him to ignore that kid.

With everyone in their right positions, the director shouts "Action!" and the scene begins. Lily and Mr. Jones enter together in Dracula’s living room. Dracula is waiting for them, in the middle of the room, just below one of the candelabra, in a specific position that creates a shadow effect on his face.

“Welcome to my mansion,” Dracula announces with open arms, ”You're the Harkers, correct? Allow me to introduce you to my humble abode."

Arthur waits briefly for the reaction of Mr. Jones and Lily. In the script, Jonathan Harker and Mina, intimidated by the Count's presence, would nod nervously in response, then let the Count lead them through the room.

Instead, however, Arthur is caught completely by surprise when a smiling, confident Jonathan Harker approaches him, puts an arm around his shoulders and says, _completely breaking the script_ :

"Humble? Wow. You and I have very different ideas of what is humble, Mr. Dracula. This weird chandelier behind you probably costs the price of my house!"

What the hell…?

What the hell. What the hell???

Arthur swallows. By instinct and force of habit, he contain himself enough not to look at Francis at that moment. However, for a quick second, he is unable to remain in-character. He knows that such a change in the script would certainly cause them to have to record the scene again, so for a brief moment, he is again just the actor Arthur, waiting for the director to do something about that mess.

These few seconds of hesitation serve as an opening for Mr. Jones to dominate the scene that should have been his. He walks through Dracula's living room, kind of dragging him around by the shoulders and curiously nudging a few objects.

"What is this?" he asks, pointing to a (false) gold goblet, adorned with (false) jewels, which ARTHUR should have displayed to him in the first place.

Why isn’t the director doing anything? Is he fucking with Arthur? Is that it?

Thanks to Francis, Alfred is completely stealing that scene. That miserable, untalented kid was just coming in and taking a hold of Arthur's scene without a care in the world!

"It's a goblet of wine," Arthur improvises as well. He can’t lose. He doesn’t care if they are going to repeat that scene or not. He simply can’t give that scene to Alfred in a plate, as if he couldn’t respond to his improvisation. "As you would know, if you had given me a second to present my own house instead of touching everything," he gives a upset ‘you-know-what-i’m-saying’ look deep into Alfred’s eyes.

Alfred, then, fucking smirks.

"Excuse me, I just wanted to help you. You seemed a bit lost after my comment about your furniture."

He's mocking Arthur. He is mocking Arthur by ACTING. This is the greatest possible insult to Arthur Kirkland and possibly worse than him mocking Arthur and proceeding to punch him.

Arthur has no idea what Alfred is doing. He doesn’t even know if his motives really matter, actually. What matters is that Arthur has twenty years of acting experience and all he wanted was a peaceful recording of one of the few scenes in which he would have any prominence, and that fucking kid couldn’t give up being the center of attention for even two minutes! Two bloody minutes!

Arthur Kirkland is absolutely furious and he is definitely facing Alfred's behavior as a personal offense. Arthur can tolerate many things, but he definitely cannot tolerate being humiliated in front of the cameras by a nosy narcissistic boy.

"Yes, Jonathan Harker..." Arthur responds slowly, very patiently "I must admit I was distracted." he, then, slightly leans his head to Alfred’s side, revealing gradually to the camera the most cynical and yet subtly evil of smiles. "I was just observing that since you entered here, you can’t stop frowning, so I was worried that you were having a migraine or some mysterious forehead disease."

This line comes with the impact of a wrecking ball. Lily-Mina needs to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter, and Alfred is so genuinely shocked by that that his eyebrows finally shift, jumping way up on his face, and he is even blushing a little.

“CUT!”

It was only when the director shouted out that Arthur realized that he could have made a mistake in getting carried away by Alfred’s actions. Film rolls were very expensive and having to re-record such a long scene would be a waste. Maybe he should have let Alfred steal the scene. It was just a stupid scene to show the setting of the story!

Now, there was no chance they could use the recording. Not when Arthur had humiliated not only Jonathan Harker, but Alfred himself!

"HAHAHAHAH! That was one of the best things I've ever seen! "Francis starts crying from laughter in his chair and slapping his thigh on and on. Arthur had seen him like this many times before but never when sober. "Ah, I can’t breathe!  Let's take a break, everybody! I need some time!"

Oh, well that was unexpected.

 

* * *

 

 

Alfred grabs Arthur's arm and starts dragging him somewhere far from the cameras. Arthur allows himself to be taken. He is so in shock with his own actions that he is as malleable and soft as clay.

Their destination is, of course, Alfred's dressing room. Alfred brings Arthur inside and closes the door. All this happens very fast. Arthur barely has time to analyze the environment around him. Alfred quickly returns and press him against the wall, using his arms as a barrier to keep Arthur locked in place. His breath is racing, his face is red and his brows furrowed with anger. Oh damn. An angry alpha was always bad news. Things usually turned out physical (in a bad way) very quickly.

"What the hell, man? Did you have to point out what I do with my eyebrows? That was a low blow."

A part of Arthur, his most rational portion, ponders in simply leaving it as it is. If he apologizes right away, he can return to the recording without adding behind-the-scenes dramas to the film. Who would blame him for swallowing his pride? It was the most mature and secure decision.

However, the more latent part of Arthur is shouting "Fuck that guy!" and on that day, that's the part he ends up following.

"It was you who started with the script changes!" Arthur yells back, clenching his fists and staring at Alfred with his chin up. "I know you did it on purpose! How immature can you be?! I don’t pay attention to you and then you get revenge by stealing my scenes? Act professional!"

Suddenly, a small smile sprouts at one end of Alfred's mouth. This smile seems innocent enough at first, almost like a gesture of peace. However, it grows rapidly, acquiring an almost malignant hint to it and suddenly, Alfred begins to laugh uncontrollably. He laughs loudly, like a villain who just got the good guy in a trap.

‘Oh, shit’, Arthur thinks, ‘this guy is fucking bonkers’.

"Sorry for disappointing you, but I really don’t have to waste my talent on you, Kirkland." Alfred finally answers in a very cocky way as he wipes away his tears, finishing laughing. "If you've forgotten, I'm the star of this movie. The star in general, comparing himself to the rest of the members of this production."

This speech is completely different from anything Alfred has said so far. Arthur does not know if he is seeing something that he awakened in Alfred or something that Alfred always had inside and simply tried to disguise until now. It is an almost surreal experience. Alfred, with his puppy eyes and good boy fame, whose only known fault was being a little too cooky at times, is practically showing himself to be the bad guy in that situation!

"So why... ?!" Arthur tries to question him.

"I'm a creative actor, so things like that come out of me naturally," Alfred says, cutting off Arthur's question. "I don’t just follow the script like I’m an undead. No pun intended. "

That condescending motherfucker.

So that's the kind of person that Alfred F. Jones is. The guy who plays the good boy for everyone and uses false modesty as if it is a perfume, while on the inside he’s pure arrogance and competitiveness. Arthur knew those types before. He's the kind of person who can’t give the spotlight for a moment. With actors like Alfred there was no harmony on the screen. Everything needed to be disputed. The more Arthur opened, the more Alfred would try to steal from him.

For someone so overbearing, who would get the public's attention as guaranteed ... Only for this kind of person, Arthur would never give up his place.

"Two can play this game, Jones," he says earnestly, staring at Alfred. There are many things with which Arthur can be patient and understanding. Alfred F. Jones, he decides, will no longer be one of them. Sparks of determination and anger are burning within his green eyes at this moment.

In contrast, Alfred has a stupid smile, full of cheekiness, and he seems almost happy with what Arthur has just said. He takes his hands off the wall and puts them in the pockets of his pants, lightly rocking his body back and forth to stretch.

"Yes, but only one of us is the protagonist, so good luck having no results with your efforts," He responds merely and then waves to Arthur, leaving from the dressing room, looking like he just won a battle.

Arthur lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. He can hardly believe what just happened. Shit, shit. He discovered something that would potentially ruin all of his expectations for a quiet production.

Alfred F. Jones, the golden heart boy from Hollywood, is actually a goddamn bastard.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again, guys! Thank you for all your support in the last chapter! I hope you have enjoyed this new one! hjkljk Please let me know how you felt about it, leaving a review or kudos! 
> 
> My special thanks to littlemaple for helping to revise this chapter and leaving a kudo and thanks to ForLoveofLiberTea, CaptainScone, TheAmazingAl, Liberty13roses, fvck_amx, VivaDragnire, DiurnalDays, EmpressVegah, KuroNekoSuna, RibbonsFancy, Rubythroated, Ixiepixie, CielPh, kcfilomeno, Sadaf_Awesome and 17 guests that left kudos! Also, thank you to everyone that left reviews! I already answered those!


	3. Trouble in Paradise

Several flashes of scenes between Jonathan Harker and Dracula appear quickly on the screen. It’s not possible to hear the audio of these scenes, but still it’s easy to notice the constant tension hanging in the air and the maximum commitment of the two actors in each second of recording.

These scenes are basically a summary of Arthur's last weeks. For Arthur Kirkland, sharing a scene with Alfred now means battling with him for it.

Arthur is a much more experienced actor and he easily has the advantage over the scenes that require subtlety. He doesn’t like to improvise, but when necessary, he doesn’t allow himself to lose to Alfred on that. He says sarcastic lines that aren’t on the script as if they are part of his character's breath.

Still, Arthur inevitably loses some battles.

Alfred has a natural talent for making flashy things seem in-character, is very good at improvising and he's, after all, the bloody protagonist. Despite Arthur's efforts, there are scenes that are completely stolen by the younger actor. Alfred, of course, becomes unbearably smug when that happens. The smile he gives to Arthur when he knows he won … Urgh. It really gets on Arthur’s nerves.

Arthur, usually, isn’t a competitive person. As a beta, he has become accustomed to settle for second place, before a fight for the first one begins. Alphas can be a handful when it comes to competitions and Arthur doesn’t have patience for these dramas.

He usually does his best simply because he wants to do his best, not because he wants to outdo other actors. He is a perfectionist. In his current roles, being like this usually means lessening the subtle intensity of his acting and doing a more ‘on-the-nose’ job. The films in which he works in the present are just simple things for simple audiences and, for the sake of the film itself, it’s best for him to contain his skills so his performance won’t contrast with the work of other actors.

It had been a long time since Arthur had given his all in front of the cameras, but he's having to do it again now.

To show us this, the screen we see divides into two segments and parallels of an Arthur from ten years ago and Arthur from the present appears in each one of them. In one of the segments of the screen, he looks like a confident young man and in the other, you can see wrinkles under his weary eyes but his determination shines through him. In both scenarios, he appears writing notes in his script, practicing scenes in front of the mirror and muttering his lines to himself in different tones of voice, as if testing them.

He’s doing a ridiculous amount of effort for the kind of movie he's on. Of course, a movie called ‘Jonathan Harker versus Dracula’, directed by someone who couldn’t even bother giving Arthur more than one figurine, won’t run for an Oscar or be a movie classic. Arthur is aware that everything he is doing will have no other reward than the satisfaction of defeating Alfred F. Jones, which is the most ridiculous of motives. Still, he can’t give up first in their silent war. This is something that has everything to do with Alfred and has nothing to do with Alfred at the same time. It's complicated to put it into words.

The best way to explain it would be to say that Arthur faces his battle with Alfred as a battle against a bunch other things in his career that he is unable to directly confront. Therefore, the easy satisfaction of defeating Alfred is enough of a reward. That’s why he still battles.

 

* * *

 

Some time seems to have passed as we change sceneries again. The current scenario is a recording setting that mimics a dungeon. There are all the typical objects of a villain's hideout in this place. An iron lady against the wall, made of cardboard and carefully positioned so the light makes it look more real. Chandeliers and fake spider webs on the walls. A coffin with an ill-made figure covered in dark paint, which is supposed to represent Dracula after being killed by Jonathan Harker.

Yes, Dracula is dead in this scene. His death happens in one of the very last scenes of the film but this is far from being one of the last scenes they will have to record. Scenes are not recorded in the order they appear in the movie. They are recorded according to the convenience of using that day to record them. Thanks to this, Arthur gets the opportunity to watch his rival acting without having to share the screen with him.

In the current scene, Jonathan Harker has just killed Dracula with a stake in his heart. He is properly positioned near the coffin, with the stake still in his hands and a bunch of red paint scattered on his expensive costumes because in his case, Francis can make that kind of investment. Mina Harker is also in her position, chained by the ankles and wrists to the wall, after being kidnapped by Dracula.

When the director shouts "Action!", Mina exclaims "Oh, Jonathan! My hero!” and Jonathan immediately drops the stake on the ground, running toward her to free her.

It's exciting to see how fast he goes. Arthur has to admire the man's talent for action scenes. He has so much energy.

"Don’t worry, my dear! I'm here now! The evil has been destroyed!” proclaims Jonathan with a radiant smile, managing to, somehow, let Mina out of her chains, even without a key or any rational explanation for it.

‘This is really a cheap movie’, Arthur thinks once more. Then, he curses himself a little over how fucking good Alfred is looking at that moment, smiling and swiftly rescuing the heroine. He really has a natural charm. That is, when he isn’t frowning all the time. That is, almost never.

Mina quickly leaps into Jonathan's arms, giving him an emotional hug. The two pull away only a little, but Jonathan continues to hold Mina by the shoulders. The two exchange meaningful looks.

The main couple should now join in a passionate (but still appropriate for all ages) kiss. It's a big moment. The last moment of the movie, in fact. It has to be a representation of how their love overcame all dangers or something.

However…

For some reason, Alfred is giving a weird smile and taking some time to take Mina Harker's lips against his. He shifts the weight between his legs and he even lets out his breath for a long time and looks at the ceiling for a moment. It's like he's about to give his first kiss.

Suddenly, he leans in and finally kisses Mina, but it's the most bland kiss Arthur has ever seen in his entire career. It’s fast, it’s soft and completely devoid of passion. It's almost like the kiss a mother would give her baby.

'What the hell was that?' Arthur asks himself, staring at the couple with bewilderment. Of all the scenes he'd thought Alfred would have problems with, a kissing scene was definitely not one of them, given the fact he had so many omega fans.

Francis shouts "Cut!" in an indignant voice. Oh, he's clearly annoyed. Scenes of romance are his favorite, and as much as Francis can tolerate all of Alfred's shortcomings, he can’t tolerate an ill-made kissing scene.

"Let's start over," he says, shaking his head.

"What’s the matter?" Alfred asks innocently, turning to the director. Seriously? He thought that was good enough for a final shot?

"That kiss was the problem." Francis points out indignantly. "I don’t know if you're scared of us being censured or what, Jones, but I need more than that. More passion. She's your wife!" Francis says, gesturing towards Lily. The actress seems a bit embarrassed by the failure of the scene as well and shrinks a bit, blushing and lowering eyes.

“Right... More passion. Alright. Got it. "Alfred nodded, showing a determined look. For some reason, he puts his hands inside the pockets of his pants and rummages in something that is inside one of them.

"Okay, let's start from the moment you're looking into each other's eyes before the kiss." Francis instructs, while spinning his index finger as if wrapping a cloth in it.

Alfred and Lily return to their positions.

_They say Alfred is a very pure hearted person!_

This flashback suddenly appears to us. It’s a memory that Arthur is experiencing again and, to indicate that, the next image we see is Arthur’s from the side, while he looks at the setting from a distance, very pensive, with his arms crossed over his chest.

‘A very pure hearted person’ - Arthur thought that was an incorrect assumption after discovering more about Alfred’s arrogant side. Now, thinking about it, perhaps that wasn’t completely wrong. Even if Alfred’s heart was probably way too dark and corrupted to be saved in career matters, perhaps he was quite innocent in terms of romantic experiences.

It was the first time he was kissing Lily Smith, and it's possible he was a bit embarrassed by it. A bit unprofessional but it happened. Especially with young actors who had not gotten used to kissing in the most technical way possible. He would probably do better the second time around.

“Action!”

Jonathan and Mina Harker, once again, look into each other's eyes, as he holds her shoulders. Alfred still has the same determined expression on his face, that he had just shown Francis. It’s not ideal that he is more Alfred than Jonathan Harker right now, but well. This may still work. It's not as if the audience had seen what the rest of the production crew saw.

Jonathan bites his lower lip briefly, glups hard and advances to the kiss.

It’s fast, it’s certainly more vigorous than the previous one, however it still seems a kiss by obligation. It’s less of a ‘I need you so badly, I can barely wait’ and more of ‘let’s get ridden of it right now’. Alfred practically struck Lily's mouth with his, without any sensuality or passion, and the proof of this is that as soon as Francis yells "Cut!", poor Lily covers her mouth with her hand, making a grimace of pain.

"Jones, come on! Passion, passion!” Francis exclaims exasperated, waving his arms "You love this omega! You just rescued her! All you want is to kiss her! You're not being forced to kiss a stranger under the line of a gun! You're kissing the woman you love and whose life you just saved!"

Arthur can’t help but cover his mouth to disguise a snicker. Oh, it's so, so satisfying to see Francis going at Alfred like that. It is the first time something like this occurs during the production of the film. Usually, Alfred is absurdly spoiled by everyone and nothing he does is wrong to anyone (except Arthur) and even his yawns receive people’s praise. It's absolutely fantastic to see Alfred being yelled by Francis now.

"Yes, okay! Understood! Passion! Got it!” Alfred answers, as if in complete agreement, but there is some frustration in his tone. Arthur can not tell if it's frustration with Francis, with himself or a little of both. Anyway, it's good to see a frustrated Alfred.

They go back to their positions. Again, Alfred is rummaging through something in one of his pockets while he waits for Francis to shout ‘Action!’ It’s a pretty strange habit. Arthur notices it but doesn’t give it too much thought.

Alfred and Lily try to record the scene again, but as you can see from the series of scenes that go on the screen with a sequence of disastrous and uncomfortable kisses from Alfred, Francis yelling ‘Action!’ And ‘Cut!’ repetitively and Arthur laughing and getting less and less subtle about it, things are not working.

Suddenly, an italic text appears on a black screen. It says '03 hours later’. When it goes away, this is the scene we see:

Francis is still on his chair, covering his face with his hands and releasing a long frustrated growl.

Alfred is wiping the sweat with a cloth that one of the assistants brought to him and walking in circles by the setting, uneasy.

Lily is sitting on top of Dracula's coffin, using a fan to refresh herself. At this point in the recording, it seems that there’s no respect for the dead anymore.

Generally speaking, all the people working there and watching that scene seem completely exhausted…  Except for Arthur.

Arthur has an ear-to-ear smile on his face right now. Although he has been standing for hours at the same point, watching Alfred's lousy attempts to kiss an omega decently, he honestly feels like he could spend three more hours like that. After all, as much as it is uncomfortable to stand for so long, the simple joy of seeing Alfred failing repeatedly is the greatest source of energy he could get.

"That’s enough." Francis announces, after finishing groaning for almost a full minute."We're going to stop here. Let's record this scene another day."

"Wait! Let me try again!"Alfred requests, approaching Lily and taking her shoulders, as he looks directly at Francis.

'So romantic,' Arthur thinks, struggling to disguise his laughter again.

"Listen, Jones. Repeating this won’t do any good. You can’t make this scene work with sheer determination." Francis explained with a tired look. "You need to think about what that kiss means in the context of the story and understand what I'm asking of you.”

“But…!”

"We'll continue this another day," Francis says in a definitive tone, rising from his chair and walking into his dressing room without looking back. It's an indirect victory for Arthur.

When Alfred's gaze falls on him, Arthur gives him a wide, pleased grin. Alfred stares at him for a moment, frowning his stupid eyebrows and leaning forward a little, seeming slightly confused for some reason. After doing this for way longer than would be expected, he ends up looking away and shaking his head, as if to say ‘never mind’. It's a strange reaction, but Arthur decides to interpret it as the reaction of a bad loser and is still joyful about it.

What a great day of recordings. What a great day in general!

Now, time to change his clothes and go to a bar to celebrate a wonderful day!

 

* * *

 

The ‘Beilschmidt’s Drinks’ is a good enough bar for its role in the city. It is the place where smaller-caliber actors go to vent about their frustrations with the spoiled main actors and the absurd demands of the directors. Famous actors and directors have their own elegant bars to go dance, smoke expensive cigars and listen to great jazz bands. ‘Beilschmidt’s Drinks’ isn’t trying to attract you. It is poorly lit. The decoration isn’t that good. The drinks aren’t that good. The only person who plays music there is the owner's husband, Roderich Edelstein, who only plays classical music and accepts no complaints about it.

Frankly, the only advantage of this bar is the fact that it is usually quite empty, which is more than enough to make it Arthur’s favorite.

In this particular night, he is sitting at the counter, right in front of the bartender and owner of the place, Gilbert. Though there’s some customers at their tables, eating snacks, there’s only one client besides himself at the counter and he’s at the other end of it. Therefore, Arthur feels fully at ease, as if the entire bar belongs to him, and is in his third drink of the night.

"Today is a good day, Gilbert," he says, raising his glass and admiring the amber glow of his glass of Manhattan and appreciating the sounds of Chopin that Roderich is playing this night.

“Yeah, you told me that a couple of times already.” Gilbert chuckles while he cleans up some glasses, “Besides, I would know anyway. You only come here when you're in a good mood.”

"I don’t like to look sad in front of others. Just in front my cats." Arthur admits in a rare moment of sincerity about his feelings, keeping his gaze fixed on the contents of his glass. Alcohol has this effect on him. He becomes a little more honest.

"You won’t be able to drink that with your eyes." Gilbert jokes, indicating the glass with a head movement.

"Oh, shut up." Arthur smiles and takes a sip of his drink. "I'm having a great night. Do you want to know why I'm having a great night?"

"No, you've said it several times tonight," Gilbert replies, rolling his eyes and wiping the counter. "You know, it's unusual for you to be happy with an actor failing to do a scene. Generally, you'd be angry about something like that and complaining about the waste of film, time and resources… "

Gilbert did hear the whole story. From the moment Arthur had entered that bar, he'd already said, "Gilbert, get ready to serve me several drinks tonight because I'm celebrating the failure of a loser!"  Between one drink and another, he hadn’t managed to stop talking about Alfred F. Jones and how he was an arrogant prick, how they had to fight for every scene because of him and especially how Alfred had made a fool of himself that day and how fantastic it had been.

And after listening all that, Gilbert had a point. Usually, Arthur would be more concerned with the quality of the movie than with personal feuds. It’s very rare for him to prioritize personal feelings above his work.

"True," Arthur concedes. "However, this case is different. The director is Francis who is an imbecile. The actor is Alfred F. Jones, who is also an imbecile. Despite my thoughts about how inconvenient this is for the rest of the crew, I will allow myself, on this particular occasion, to be happy with their failure." Arthur tells Gilbert (and himself), taking another sip of his drink.

"You really have few things to celebrate in your life, don’t you?" the voice that says it comes from behind Arthur, who immediately gets an awful sense of dread.

At this moment, the camera, situated just in front of Arthur, slides slowly to his side, revealing that a person in a grey suit is standing right there. Arthur turns his face slowly to the person in question and when his eyes rise to the man in a grey suit, the camera angle rises as well, revealing Alfred F. Jones's slightly annoyed face. Oh, was he annoyed by Arthur’s commentary? Too fucking bad.

"Are you at least old enough to drink?" this the first sentence that comes out of Arthur's mouth at the sight of Alfred's face.

"I can ask the same for you, old man. Should you be drinking so much at your age?" Alfred retorts without hesitation, sitting right next to Arthur. He has to give it to the boy. At least, he has some guts. "And yes, I'm twenty-one." he adds more to Gilbert, who is intensely watching their conversation, than to Arthur.

Gilbert, then, realizing something Arthur isn’t aware of at this moment, takes advantage of this cue to go to the customers at the tables, leaving the two alone.

"How did you find me?" this is Arthur’s next question and he says it while squinting his eyes suspiciously at Alfred. He only realizes at the last second that he ended up, arrogantly, assuming that Alfred F. Jones had gone there because of him. Oh, blazes. Alfred would definitely point that out, Arthur thinks, regretting his choice of words.

He doesn’t, though. Instead, he calmly answer without looking at Arthur:

"I wanted to talk to you after the recording, but you weren’t in your dressing room. I asked Francis about it and he said you could be here."

… Huh.

So Alfred had actually gone there specifically because of him. That brought more questions than answers.

"What did you want to talk to me? Do you want a fight?" Arthur asks directly in a mixture of being affronted and fearful, retreating a little in his chair.

Considering how much Arthur laughed at Alfred during the recordings, that would be a likely possibility, and, oh heavens, Arthur hoped it was not because he'd get beaten up if that was the case. There is no chance that he will win against Alfred with those strong arms and higher height.

Arthur can’t disguise that he is a bit afraid about this possibility and Alfred, insolently, laughs in his face in response. What an absolute cretin.

"You're a lot more spontaneous when you're drunk," he says smiling at Arthur, leaning one elbow on the bar counter and resting his cheek on his hand.

Eh.

"Eh." Arthur blinks in surprise and confusion. What is going on? Was that an insult? A compliment?

"What's a drink you'd recommend to me?" Alfred casually asks, pointing to the bottles displayed at the bar with curiosity. He is acting as if they were two friends who went out to drink together.

Arthur frowns at him and decides to confront him. He feels that Alfred is in control of the situation at the moment and he doesn’t like it.

"Listen here, boy. What do you think you're doing in such a bar in the first place? I thought you were the golden boy who never drank, smoked and who intended to marry a virgin. Are you trying to impress someone or did you just come here to ruin my night?"

Alfred briefly laughs in a low voice.

"A little bit of both, I guess,." he ends up answering with a slightly naughty little smile. Arthur has no idea what he means by that, but it seems a pedantic response and it makes him annoyed. "I don’t usually drink, but I plan to drink _with you_ tonight. Inviting you to go out doesn’t seem to work, so I thought I may try the surprise element."

“Surprise element my arse,” Arthur cusses, holding his glass tightly and grinding his teeth. "You can drink, but you certainly will not drink with me. Don’t talk to me. I won’t let you screw up what could be a lovely night.."

As he says this, Arthur turns his face to the other side, letting Alfred to speak to his shoulder.

"Okay, seems fair." Alfred shrugs. His relaxed attitude makes Arthur feel like he hasn’t won this battle. "Hey, can I have a beer?" he raises his hand to catch Gilbert's attention and Gilbert, of course, immediately abandon the tables and comes to serve him.

Arthur sighs as he watches from the corner of his eyes Gilbert filling up a glass of beer for Alfred. Judging by the amount of attention Alfred already demanded when sober, Arthur has a feeling that Alfred must be a needy drunk. He is quiet for now, but that probably won’t last long. Anyway, it’s going to be a long night. Arthur probably needs a drink too. He raises his own hand and asks for a martini.

The camera’s focus turns from Arthur to the bottles displayed at the bar’s wall. It slowly goes through them and continues to go around the bar, showing its red brick walls with black and white photos of old customers. We have a look at the tables and they look full at first but completely empty at the next second. We can infer that a few hours have passed by between these moments and now most of the clients already left.

When we get to see Arthur and Alfred again, most of the lights are off, Gilbert is cleaning up the bar, and Alfred and Arthur look a lot more drunk.

Alfred and Arthur are very different types of drunk. Alfred is a gloomy drunk, apparently. His cheeks flushed with alcohol, contrast with a upset pout on his face. He is very quiet, fiddling with the drink inside his glass.

Arthur, on the other hand…

"Pfff! Honestly, mate! When you messed up your...  eighth kiss with Lily, I could barely believe my eyes! I was almost betting with the extras how many times you could make mistakes on a scene like that! Haha! Poor Lily! I wonder if she will ever have the desire to kiss an alpha again after that disaster?" Arthur laughs scandalously, giving strong slaps on Alfred’s shoulders.

Arthur is loud and uninhibited. He's annoying and he's having fun. He vaguely remembers telling Alfred not to talk to him, but he himself can’t stop himself from talking to Alfred and laughing openly of him. He is also touching quite a lot on Alfred's shoulders while he mocks him. Well, they are good shoulders. Arthur is a guy who can certainly appreciate a pair of good shoulders, even without appreciating the person attached to them.

Alfred has been enduring these taunts with just annoyed grunts and rolling eyes. He mumbles a lot while he's drunk, but Arthur is distracted and can’t understand what he's saying. As an audience, we can hear ‘it shouldn’t be like this’ and "I don’t know what I'm doing’ before Gilbert interrupts them, by picking up their half-empty glasses and dragging them to his side of the counter, while making hard eye contact with both of them.

"You two. I'm closing the bar. It's time for you to go home.” Gilbert tell them, waving his hand at them as if he's blowing away flies.

Alfred is the first to get up and he surprises Arthur by extending him a hand.

"Listen...  I'm pretty drunk now..." Alfred confesses in a slurred voice that makes that statement legitimate. "You're drunk too, and you look like a more dangerous type of drunk than me…  Let me… put you in a cab. Or... you're going to end up fighting with alphas in the streets or something..."

"What are you talking about?" Arthur frowns, insulted. "I don’t need the protection of any alpha. Much less of an absolute plonker like yourse…!" he tries to stand up to confront Alfred and ends up almost stumbling on his own feet and having to be held by him.

“A what?" Alfred asks, while Arthur still has his head buried in his chest.

Goddamnit.

"Shut up and take me to the cab."

 

* * *

 

 

In the next scene we see, Alfred and Arthur are outside, standing on the sidewalk, and Alfred is holding Arthur by the waist so he doesn’t fall since Arthur is a bit dizzy. As it is late at night, the streets are empty. There is not a single vehicle in them. Even the lights of the local establishments are out. Only the faint yellowish lighting of the streetlamps prevents them from being enveloped by complete darkness.

"Your cabs will arrive soon." Roderich put his head out into the crack of the bar door to talk to them. “Please vomit on your vehicle and not on our sidewalk.”

Alfred and Arthur nod together with distant looks. They’re quite drunk. Alfred's eyes are even blinking desynchronized.

And so, Roderich closes the door, leaving the two locked outside the bar.

"Seriously, boy... " Arthur chuckles, almost to himself, as soon as they are alone, breaking what could be an instant of peace, quiet and silence. He gives Alfred a little shove and lets his hand slide for a little too long on his arm. "I still can’t believe you couldn’t kiss Lily. She's such a lovely thing. It should be natural for you to do that. In-character or not! I mean, had you ever kissed someone before?"

"Shut up..." Alfred grunts, staring at the ground. "I don’t have much experience kissing omegas."

"Oh, so you don’t have much experience with kissing. As expected,.” Arthur smirks, leaning towards him a bit like a snake.

"I don’t have much experience kissing omegas," Alfred repeats for some reason.

Arthur laughs again and hugs Alfred’s arm, rubbing his face against Alfred’s shoulder.

"It's really a shame, you know. You're so handsome but you’re such a bad kisser...  I suppose fantasies aren’t always consistent with reality. "

Something in this sentence makes Alfred suddenly snap. He shakes his arm, making Arthur release it and turns to him with an intense and serious look.

"You... You really are impossible, Arthur Kirkland!” he says accusingly pointing his finger at Arthur. “What do you have against me? What are you doing to me? From the first moment we met, you ...!” maybe seeing Arthur’s wide eyes, he stops shadowing over him, retreats and messes up his own hair in frustration, looking at the night sky as if begging to the gods to send a lightning over him “Urgh! I can’t understand your attitude! I know you're a good person but you're _so fucking annoying_! I mean, you never even kissed me! Don’t go judging my kisses before you try them!"

… Why was Alfred talking like he was the victim? He was the one who started that mess! And even if Arthur had been the first to start it out, that didn’t give Alfred any reason to make a scene over that. He had EVERYTHING. The glory, the fame, the beauty and the youth. Why did it matter if Arthur teased him over a little scene? Couldn’t he accept to lose in anything in life? And did he just say something about them kissing? Lord, he probably was completely wasted. He could barely realize what was coming out of his mouth anymore.

Arthur had absolutely no reason to listen to him and get affected by his complains.

"Well, I have nothing against you, Alfred F. Jones." Arthur begins to laugh, already anticipating the line he is about to say. "But as for the omegas who will kiss you in the future... I can’t say that they will feel the sam ..."

Arthur can’t finish his sentence. Suddenly, he feels his waist pulled and something covers his mouth, suppressing most of the sounds he is able to produce. This ‘something’ is warm, soft and a little moist. It tastes like beer and it feels rough and voracious against his lips.

The fright practically freezes Arthur’s brain and it takes a moment for him to realize that he is being vigorously kissed by Alfred F. Jones.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again, guys! I hope you have enjoyed the new chapter in this story! For now, there's more questions than answers but soon you will find out more about our boi Alfred!
> 
> My special thanks to littlemaple for helping to revise this chapter. Thanks to Gamma_Flamma, tinysnowflakes89, London_bound, YandereBrit, Cone_of_Depression, karaamelight and everyone else who left kudos in the story! Also thanks to everyone that left reviews! I already answered them all!>.<
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts on the story and particularly this chapter, guys!
> 
> Take care ~


	4. It Happened One Night

The next scene is unexpectedly serene. Once again, we see Arthur observing the setting of the final scene in the movie, from some distance, while Alfred and Lily make yet another try at their kissing scene. Arthur's gaze is distant and contemplative and even though it is fixed on the actors and their interaction, as we approach the camera to his face, we delve into images of his thoughts.

They return to the dark street in front of Beilschmidt's Drinks and to the feeling of being wrapped tightly by Alfred and being kissed in a way he had not been kissed in years. With Alfred's arms around his waist, his firm body being pressed against his and his strong cologne entering Arthur's nostrils, Arthur feels as if exclamations are appearing in his head. Whether they are good or bad exclamations, he has no idea.

A bunch of thoughts rush through his mind. Why is Alfred doing this? Is he trying to prove himself as a good kisser? Is he horny and unable to think straight? And more importantly, how should Arthur respond to this?

Even being ridiculously drunk, he is able to remember very well that Alfred F. Jones is an imbecile. That there is a fight between the two of them going on. That Alfred is probably straight and he's just being an idiot.

Still, something in the way Alfred’s hands are running down his back and how his tongue seems to be trying to memorize every detail of his mouth, is making Arthur weak. God, it's been a while since someone had kissed him that way. And as hard as it was for him to admit it, Alfred is stupidly handsome.

A small voice in Arthur's mind convinces him that everything is fine. He is drunk. They both are. He can use that excuse later to avoid any discomfort between them about their actions.

Honestly, this voice does not sound very trustable, but it's very tempting.

He puts his arms around Alfred's neck and begins moving his mouth against his and they are about to follow a very dangerous path when they are suddenly interrupted by the horn of one of their taxis arriving in the street.

The flashback ends and we return to Arthur's face in the previous scene. The memory of this incident made his face completely red. He slaps his cheeks a bit, trying to spread the blood on them and make they look normal again.

It's been three days since he and Alfred kissed.

They've met to record their scenes after that and Alfred didn’t mention anything about it, so Arthur decided not to mention it either. It's possible Alfred doesn’t even remember what happened, and honestly, lucky him if that's the case.

Arthur can’t forget it.

The worst thing is that the memory doesn’t come only when he is interacting with Alfred or seeing Alfred. Throughout his day, he has random flashbacks about it and inevitably he always ends up thinking about it before going to sleep.

A part of him can hardly believe that he was kissed by Alfred F. Jones. After all, Alfred probably only likes omegas. Omegas of his age, who are much prettier and more docile than Arthur is. If it had not been for the alcohol and his stupid pride, he probably wouldn’t ever have kissed Arthur.

To be fair, Arthur also thought before that he would never kiss Alfred if he was sober. He thought he wasn’t shallow enough to let a handsome smile and a set of strong arms make him forget that Alfred had a lousy personality.

It seems that he  _ is _ shallow like this. If Alfred came to kiss him again, even if Arthur was sober, he would probably take it. Alfred was a pretty terrible person but one hell of a good kisser. 

However, one thing Arthur didn’t understand, no matter how many times he thought about it,  was how Alfred could have kissed him amazingly when he was drunk and be so bad at kissing a cute omega in front of the cameras, while sober.

Was it the lack of inhibition that helped him? Was he secretly shy? It had to be something of the sort. Certainly, it wasn’t a matter of inexperience. Judging by the things he did with his tongue on that night ... That hadn’t been his first rodeo.

"Okay! I'm tired! That’s enough! Let’s cancel this and make another ending!” Francis exclaims impatiently, clapping his hands to signal the interruption of the recording, waking Arthur from his daydreaming state.

The kiss scene hadn’t worked again, huh?

This makes Arthur secretly happy. He smiles discreetly, folding his arms over his chest with satisfaction.

And then Alfred turns to him with a grimace and stick out his tongue at him like a seven-year-old, and Arthur wonders how the hell he was imagining kissing that stupid bloke ever again.

* * *

 

With the kissing scene officially over, they go back to recording other scenes from the film, such as the part where Jonathan begins to see the signs that Dracula is a vampire and the part where Dracula talks to Jonathan about how long he will take to solve Dracula’s problems at selling his mansion. 

In recent days, Francis, for some reason, has been focusing heavily on recording scenes with Alfred and Arthur interacting, which are basically most of Arthur's scenes in general. In a short time, Arthur is almost finishing the scenes that he has to record.

Despite his name in the title, Arthur is the villain and the focus must be on the heroes, so he doesn’t have as many scenes as they do. Besides, Francis was, at least, generous enough to hire a stunt man for Arthur’s action scenes, so that was even less scenes he had to record.

He feels a bit relieved with the fact that his work in that movie is ending much earlier than he thought. Francis is a terrible director, Alfred is an exhausting co-worker and… Arthur… Arthur is ... Well, he feels that something in that movie is changing who he is.

He had become a resigned and impassive sort of man over the years. No expectations, no disappointments, was what he thought and he had stopped investing emotionally in his projects. It was safer and more comfortable for him to be like that.

However, when he interacts with Alfred...  something about that makes different sides of him come out - sides he thought he had overcome a long time ago. A competitive side, a childish side, an impulsive side... 

Take for example, a few months ago, Arthur would never have been thinking about what it would be like to rip off a co-worker shirt in the middle of the recordings but you know. Life changes. The thought crossed his mind a couple of times in the last few days.

Anyway, now, it's the last scene he needs to record with Alfred and what a scene this will be.

Jonathan Harker, wandering around the castle to unravel the mystery of where Dracula goes when it’s daytime, ends up entering the lair of Dracula's brides. Three beautiful omegas, wearing long dresses, thin enough to lightly accentuate their curves. They will approach Jonathan and start playing with his hair and shirt, tugging at the buttons in his chest, until Arthur appears to interfere, before they get a chance to bite him.

Arthur isn’t mentally ready to see a slightly disheveled and embarrassed Alfred, surrounded by gorgeous omegas in suggestive clothing. This is too intense. More than ever, he remembers that he feels attraction for all types. Dear lord.

Alfred, this time, is wearing a simple, open, brown coat and a white button-down shirt. Meanwhile, Arthur is wearing his usual single outfit, which is already pretty worn out by now. Arthur is looking terrible and Alfred is looking gorgeous. Nothing new.

Arthur is standing by Francis’s side, accompanying the recording of the scene where Alfred is seduced by the vampires, before making his entrance.

"How many takes do you think we will need?" he asks the director.

“Oh, not many.” Francis answers with a large grin. “A scene where Mr. Jones seems nervous to be seduced by omegas in front of you? I’m sure it will be easy to record."

Arthur isn’t sure what to think of this sentence.

The setting of the scene this time is simply an area of the castle with no specific trait apart from its useless abundance of free space. Francis didn’t want to put too many objects in that scene because he wanted the focus to be strictly on the action. The only distinctive thing he put on set was a staircase, to make it look like Alfred was coming down to a basement.

Alfred is already at the top of the stairs. While he waits for Francis to start the scene, he is rummaging through something in one of the pockets of his pants and taking deep breaths.

“Action!”

Hearing this, Alfred immediately turns into Jonathan Harker, cautiously descending the dimly lit stairs that leads to the lair of Dracula's brides, while looking suspiciously at his surroundings. It may just be Arthur's impression but Alfred seems to be acting a little better lately.

The actresses playing Dracula's brides are leaning against the wall and they quickly leave their positions, stooping down near the stairs and standing up when Jonathan Harker reaches the last ladder. Due to the position of the cameras, they will appear to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Who are you?" Alfred asks, frowning at them. This is his most common acting method, but this time, it makes sense for him to be like this.

"Who are we?" the first bride asks, placing a hand over her chest with a provocative smile. "Who are  _ you _ ?"

“My name is Jonathan Harker.” Jonathan states firmly, trying to look tough and self-confident even though his fear can be noticed by the tension on his shoulders. “I'm staying as a guest in this mansion with my wife. Sorry for intruding but I had no idea that Mr. Dracula had other visitors.”

The brides laugh among themselves.

"Oh, Mr. Harker. You don’t have to worry about it. Don’t worry about a single thing.” the second wife comforts him in a very unsettling way, approaching Jonathan and making him react by going up a few steps on the stairs, fearful. "What's the matter with you? Don’t be so nervous."

Jonathan, in his nervousness, ends up slipping and falling sit on the stairs - a scene that Alfred performs incredibly well. The lad is very good at action scenes, Arthur has to give it to him.

Dracula's brides quickly position themselves on him and begin to tug at his hair and clothes.

"Mr. Harker ..." the third wife says in a seductive voice, opening the first button of Alfred's shirt and revealing a little of his chest. "You smell delicious."

This line makes shivers run through Arthur's skin. He knows that Alfred smells good. Alfred is one of the rare alphas he knows that uses perfume. Generally, alphas and omegas don’t use such things because their own hormones produce strong odors and perfumes disguise that natural scent they enjoy so much. Alfred, for some reason, is an exception to the case. He uses a perfume with a fresh citrus scent and he smells wonderfully to Arthur, although he can understand the frustration of omegas who would like to feel his actual smell.

“Cut!”

The actors stop in their positions and look at Francis and Arthur. Arthur gulps, feeling a bit out of breath. He is about to enter in a scene filled with sexual tension that has ALFRED on the center of the action.

"Arthur, go to your spot," Francis instructs.

Arthur's spot is at the top of the stairs. He goes there, puts a hand over his forehead and takes a deep breath. He needs to focus and be professional. Focus and calm down ... Wait a minute. No, he doesn’t have to be calm. Because this is a scene in which Dracula is agitated and he is furious. He wants to claim Jonathan’s body before their brides. Acting impulsively may be exactly what the situation demands!

“Action!”

" _ What's happening here _ ?!" Dracula shouts angrily, coming down the stairs in heavy footsteps.

The brides embrace possessively Jonathan Harker. How dare they! Jonathan Harker belongs to him. He wanted Jonathan’s blood from the very beginning but he can’t eat Jonathan because he needs his help to sell the mansion and move to London. He made a huge effort containing himself all this time and he is furious at the sight of his brides making a move on him.

"You can’t have him all to yourself!" one of the brides complains. "We need a young man too!”

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" he asks indignantly. "This man is  _ mine _ !” he exclaims in such a firm tone that it frightens even himself. "You can’t touch the one person I’m not allowed to touch!"

As he says it, his eyes and Jonathan Harker’s eyes meet. According to the script, they shouldn’t have met yet. Only after the brides leave. Still, they end up finding and attracting each other like magnetic poles.

Arthur's pupils are dilated and he is breathing quickly. His shoulders are a little upright and his fists are clenched. Every part of his body seems to emanate the message that he wants Jonathan Harker and that he won’t accept anyone touching what is his.

Jonathan Harker, meanwhile, seems ... Well, to be honest, instead of seeming confused and scared, he seems ecstatic about what he's seeing. He smiles in Arthur's direction, sighing with appreciation, and his eyes sparkle with delight ... which is definitely not the right expression for the situation.

“Cut!”

As expected, Francis would fix that.

"All of you, come here." he says, resting his chin in his hands, and looking at them in a serious and pensive manner that Arthur didn’t expect.

Alfred gets up immediately, stretching his back. The bride’s actresses help each other to adjust their clothes before standing up as well. Arthur… Well, Arthur is already on his foot but he keeps still for a while, simply staring at Francis suspiciously.

It’s not like Francis to create all this suspense. He is always direct and instantaneous in his criticisms. Arthur has the feeling that some bad news are about to come.

When all the actors stand in front of the director, waiting for his instructions, Francis begins to say,

"I've been thinking about it for some time and I think I've reached a important decision today ..."

Arthur's heartbeat quickens and he feels slightly nauseous.

When a director decides to announce an important decision right in the middle of a scene being recorded, this has to be bad.

"We're going to change the script for the movie." Francis explains, picking up the, apparently, old script and tossing it back over his shoulder. "After thoroughly thinking about our last scenes, I concluded that the chemistry between Mina Harker and Jonathan Harker isn’t what I want for this movie. We're going to change the main couple. "

This is a decision that has a great weight over all that they have done .... and it seems to have come out of nowhere.

That wasn’t even a scene between Lily and Alfred! What made Francis decide that on that very moment?

Honestly, this seems like a risky decision. They already recorded a lot of scenes with Lily and Alfred. Changing the omega lead would be a big move and they would have to wait for a new script AND record again a lot of scenes. That would be a waste of resources that Arthur wasn’t sure if Francis can afford.

On the other hand, Arthur can understand the reason for him wanting to change the main couple. Alfred and Lily failed astronomically to do the closing scene of the movie and they still have a couple of important romantic scenes to record, that might be a huge failure as well. Maybe this  _ is  _ the last possible moment to make this change. Besides, if Francis saw more chemistry between Alfred and one of the actresses playing the vampire brides… That would certainly explain his sudden decision.  

What now? The new main couple is Jonathan Harker and a vampire? What the fuck?

"Are you going to replace Lily, then?" Alfred asks astonished. “Seriously?”

Oh, indeed, it can be that too, Arthur realizes. This makes a lot more of sense, actually. If the main pairing isn’t working, Francis can simply replace one of the main actors and, of course, he would keep the most famous one. Goodbye, Lily.

"No, no. I have another idea.” Francis answers, seeming very pleased with himself, as he explains "We're going to keep Lily as your wife but… we will focus on a romantic subtext between Dracula and Jonathan Harker.”

Eh.

* * *

Arthur is standing in the doorway of the studio, smoking and looking at the night sky thoughtfully. He is wearing a long, open, light-brown coat and a hat. The recordings of the day are over. He could already leave if he wanted to. Most of the people that work there already did. The street in front of the studio looks very quiet and empty.

Still, he doesn’t want to go home just yet. He has a lot in his mind and he doesn’t want to drive like this.

" _ It will be just some subtext! It will feel almost like a joke! _ ", Arthur remember Francis's words earlier on this day.  _ “I mean, a beta male villain who might be attracted to the alpha protagonist ... It's funny! That's what we're going to use to ease the impression for audiences, but truly, I just want to see more development in the relationship between Dracula and Jonathan Harker. The chemistry between you two is incredible. I want to see more interactions between you. More implications that you want each other. This will make the movie so much more interesting!" _

This decision was, of course, very controversial. An alpha and a beta man ... If they really had a romance on the screen, it would be a scandal. Alfred didn’t respond well to that idea. He gaped and stammered something along the lines of "W-What ?! I couldn’t...! I can’t…!"

Alfred is so straight, Arthur thinks bitterly. 

The only way for a romance between him and Alfred to happen in a movie would be as a joke. Characters that deviate from gender roles are funny. Audiences could buy a Dracula that fancies Jonathan Harker, if he gets ridiculed for that. The fact that he is a monster also helps the idea to be more acceptable. Monsters are strange and do abnormal things. 

Arthur Kirkland, however, feels attraction to alphas himself and he isn’t a monster, nor a joke to others. Therefore, he has conflicting feelings about submitting himself to such a role.

"Hey, stop filling the entrance with that bad smell." says a voice from behind.

Arthur looks over his shoulder with disdain. He has a feeling he knows who just said that. Sure enough, Alfred is standing right behind him, with a disapproving look on his face, wearing a blue suit that is, unfortunately, fantastic on him. Also, he's very close to Arthur. Too close. Arthur is tempted to ask if he is about to lean his head on his shoulder.

He doesn’t understand why Alfred can’t give people any personal space when he is talking to them.

"Children can’t understand how adults have fun," Arthur retorts, smoking another drag of his cigarette, trying to ignore Alfred’s proximity of him.

"I thought you had stopped. I had never seen you smoke again. "Alfred points out.

Surprisingly, he's right. Arthur had stopped and had done it for a reason.

"I try to avoid it because it affects my voice and I have enough trouble getting roles with my accent ..." Arthur admits, taking the cigarette from his mouth and pressing it against the wall to put it down. "That doesn’t mean I can’t smoke once in a while, though."

Alfred puts his hands in his pockets and continues to stay behind Arthur, very close to him, casually.

"So... what did you think of Francis's idea? To change the script?” he asks bluntly.

“I don’t like it." Arthur admits to him. Of course, he can’t be happy with the idea of helping to reinforce stereotypes about people who love types that society doesn’t expect them to love.

For some reason, Alfred starts laughing strangely and rubbing the back of his neck, looking away.

"Yeah, I do not ... I mean, it’s ridiculous! Us! Having a chemistry!" he exclaims as if it's the dumbest idea ever. "I don’t even know if I could take you seriously if you pretended to flirt with me!"

Alfred is managing to leave Arthur incredibly annoyed at an astonishingly fast speed. Arthur, however, is good at disguising this and he remains with a semblance without emotion.

"Do you think so?" he asks in a rather cynic tone. Alfred doesn’t get the hint.  

"Yes! Of course!"Alfred continues to laugh. "I mean... Imagine just the two of us having to act like there's a chemistry between us! It would be totally weird!"

The words 'there seemed to be chemistry between us when you were groping my whole body on the sidewalk of the bar' almost come out of Arthur's mouth, but he manages to swallow them in time and respond only with a puzzled "hmm".

Alfred is fidgeting more and more in his own pockets. Despite the smile on his face, he looks nervous.

"You heard the rumors that I like all types and genders, didn’t you?" Arthur infers, seeing the restless way Alfred is acting at the mere idea of pretending there may be a romantic subtext between them.

Alfred's shoulders quickly and visibly become tense. Bingo.

"Don’t be so cocky." Arthur rolls his eyes. "I like all types and genders, not everyone. You certainly don’t sell yourself too well by acting as annoyingly as you do. I, wholeheartedly, hope that we will never be a romantic pairing.”

That seems to affect Alfred. He immediately stares at Arthur, angry, opening his arms and throwing his hands in the air out of frustration.

"Hey, you're not wonderful yourself, Mr. Antisocial! Who would want to make a romantic pair with someone as grumpy as you?! I couldn’t kiss you even if they asked me to!"

This comment pisses off Arthur. It really does.

He feels irritated at how stupid Alfred is, that he would kiss the person he supposedly wouldn’t kiss for nothing, just because he was a bit drunk. He feels irritated with himself for having enjoyed that kiss so much. He feels irritated because he still finds Alfred handsome and he still thinks Alfred is a fucking imbecile.

All this anger ends up bursting out of him and Arthur does something impulsive.

He turns to Alfred, taking advantage of the small distance between them to hold the sides of his face and pulls him up closer to briefly press their lips together. 

Alfred's reaction to it is to completely lose his ability to react. He becomes paralyzed. He lets his arms fall to the sides and doesn’t make a single sound.

"See? Is it the end of the world?"Arthur asks impatiently, releasing his hold on Alfred’s face.

Alfred is so shocked that he staggers back a little as Arthur lets him go. He can’t even respond. He merely stares at Arthur, gaping and wide-eyed. What an idiot.

“Fuck off.” Arthur says resentfully, turning back to leave. 

And then, suddenly, his arm is held and he is forced to make a half-turn and face Alfred again. He is about to tell Alfred to fuck off again, but this plan is interrupted. Suddenly, he is pulled by Alfred and Alfred’s free hand go behind his ear and he begins to be kissed ferociously by a completely sober Alfred F. Jones.

What. The. Fuck.

Arthur can’t think straight. He can only react. He uses his free arm to take a hold on Alfred’s waist and then hungrily moves his mouth against his.

Sensing Alfred's soft and yet slightly rough lips and his hot tongue, Arthur feels his body warm up. His legs becoming weaker. His heartbeat speeding up.

Oh, he wants that. He really wants that. And what really does it for him, the thing that makes his whole body react, is that he knows Alfred wants it as much as he does.

However, they can’t go on. They are in the middle of a sidewalk. And not only that. They're at the sidewalk of the entrance to a studio and even though the recordings are over and most people are gone, they could always come back for something and catch them. It would be a scandal if they were found like this.

They both seem to realize it at the same time and release each other simultaneously almost as if they had gotten an electric shock. Then they stare at each other, stunned and out of breath.

Arthur eagerly awaits Alfred's reaction, feeling his stomach weight down as if there were stones in it.

Darn it.  He is nervous. He hates acting on impulse. He hates not knowing what to expect.

What's Alfred going to do now? Act disgusted? Ask Arthur to never talk about it again? Surely he was shocked by what he did and…

"Well, if you want to continue this someday..." Alfred takes a notepad out of his jacket, writing something down before ripping the sheet off and putting it on Arthur’s coat pocket. "That's my address." he winks, waving at Arthur, before returning to the studio.

At this moment, Arthur Kirkland realizes that he may not understand a single aspect of Alfred F. Jones’ personality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again, guys! I hope you have enjoyed this new chapter!!! Next chapter will be mostly NSFW so be warned! 
> 
> Your support is so important to me and I appreciate all the reviews and kudos that you leave!>.<
> 
> Thank you to littlemaple again for your help with revising the chapter! Special thanks to saphira115, Kirianju, FranMadaraki and Viridian_Turtle for leaving kudos and thanks to VivaDragnire, Liberty13roses, ixiepixie, jedishampoo, TheAmazingAl and Ellie for leaving reviews in this story(I already answered those)! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this update and will keep supporting this series! Take care!^_^


	5. Escapade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot of NSFW. Like a lot.

The next image we see is of a wooden door with a peephole and the number 332 above it.

As the camera moves away from the door, we can see Arthur, standing right in front of it. His fist is stretched toward it and he almost knocks on it but steps back at the last second, putting his hand in his pants’ pocket.

Arthur is wearing a well fitted and elegant gray suit, which he looks at, wondering it isn’t a bit too much. What if Alfred mocks him for being too well-dressed?

We, briefly, watch Arthur rehearse in a quiet voice what he is going to say. He first rehearses a brief formal greeting and then the explanations. He came for professional reasons. He wants to make it perfectly clear that this whole thing of rivalry and kisses on the sidewalk wasn’t what he was looking for in this job. He doesn’t like Hollywood dramas and he has no intention of living one. He just wants to do a good job and spend his spare time with his cats. He would prefer for them to maintain a cordial and distant relationship from now on.

Yeah, that sounds good to him.

He wants to state all those things to Alfred before Alfred himself says something like, "Oh, I was just trying to experiment what it's like to be with a beta man. I don’t give a fuck about how you feel about all this."

Arthur takes a deep breath. Okay, he's ready now. Now or never.

He gives three quick knocks on the door, waits two seconds and ... no answer. Alright! Alfred was probably not home! Arthur turns very quickly to leave when …

"Hey, you really came!" says Alfred’s lively voice behind him.

Arthur becomes paralyzed in the act as if he had just been caught transgressing the law. He turns slowly to Alfred, making an effort to appear calm and confident.

“Uh, I decided to come because... .”

The words simply vanish from Arthur's mouth when he sees Alfred. After all…

01\. Alfred is just wearing a towel.

02\. But Alfred is also wearing…

“Are these glasses?!” Arthur points to Alfred's face in astonishment.

Alfred is wearing glasses, indeed. They are round, have thick black frames and give him a completely different look. Instead of looking like an impetuous hero, Alfred seems like the kind of fella that rejects party invitations to stay in his home, reading.

"Oh yeah. You didn’t know that. "Alfred casually remarks, adjusting his glasses on his face. "Actually, I have a pretty bad eyesight. Without glasses, I can barely see anything."

... Did that mean that during all that time, Alfred was acting and even challenging Arthur on it without barely seeing his surroundings?! What the hell!

"Jones, you never wear glasses at the recordings!" Arthur exclaims in disbelief, confronting the veracity of what Alfred has just said.

"Of course, I don’t. Do you really think they would want a hero wearing glasses?” Alfred huffs. “If I wore them, I would only be able to play the role of the smart and slightest lame friend of the protagonist."

What he says is true, but Arthur has a hard time absorbing the fact that all along, Alfred has acted out scenes with him, without even seeing his face.

"But…  but...! You didn’t see me and… What?!"

"Look, can’t you come in and talk about it in here?" Alfred asks, arms crossed over his chest, tapping his foot impatiently. "I'm in the middle of the hall, just wearing a towel, so... "

The realization of this makes Arthur go through the door immediately and stand in the middle of Alfred's living room. Although Arthur didn’t come to do anything inappropriate, he doesn’t want to risk people assuming it after seeing him talking to Alfred in a towel.

As soon as Alfred closes the door behind him, Arthur once again questions him.

"How much do you see? Take off your glasses and tell me how many fingers I'm holding up!" he raises two fingers.

Alfred is not interested in his test. He approaches him, looking rather tired and even disappointed.

"Seriously, Arthur." he sighs, putting a hand on one of Arthur's shoulders. "We’re alone and I’m wearing just a towel and this is your reaction?"

At this moment, Arthur blinks as if he just realized Alfred’s nudity and, without thinking about it, he looks at Alfred from top to bottom.

Alfred's body is covered in drops of water that have dripped from his wet hair. They slide down his neck, to his shoulders, to his chest and stomach. He has large shoulders and a wide chest that are practically begging for marks to be left on them. Light nipples that make Arthur wonder about their taste. His stomach … Fuck, his stomach and all these lines on it marking the definition of Alfred’s muscles ... His  strong thighs, asking for something between them ...

Arthur glups.

He tries to look more into Alfred's face to reduce somewhat the intense physical attraction he is feeling at the moment. However, when Arthur forces himself to stare at his face, he notes that, unfortunately, the glasses make Alfred even more attractive. Alfred seems a bit more mature and intelligent with them and the contrast between that intelectual look and his strong, exposed body causes a surge of heat in Arthur. 

Oh, damn, he cusses himself over his own thoughts. For a second, almost imperceptible, his face closes and he clenches his fists. He absolutely refuses to admit that he is attracted to Alfred or to give him control over the situation, no matter how much things seem this way, and, for a split second, his conflicting feelings are all over his face. Arthur, however, regains his composure soon after, showing once again an impassive countenance.

"And how should I react?" he asks Alfred.

Instead of being surprised by this question, Alfred simply grins, takes Arthur’s hand and puts it over his towel, right over his cock.

“Maybe a little bit envious,” he jokes.

Alfred is apparently teasing Arthur, in more than one sense. The worst part is that it's working. Arthur feels incredibly infuriated and horny at the same time.

Even with the thick fabric barrier, he can feel Alfred's cock, already slightly hard, against the palm of his hand. The very idea that he's holding this part of Alfred causes Arthur's body to react too.

"Jones, there's a limit to how far jokes can go," Arthur tries to say before it's too late for him to stop himself from doing something stupid.

"Oh, it's okay," Alfred informs nonchalantly, keeping Arthur’s hand right over his hard-on. "It takes me a long time to reach my limits, if you know what I mean." he winks. He fucking winks.

At this point, Arthur comes to the conclusion that, well, if this is a joke or an experiment for Alfred, he should say it now because Arthur will no longer contain himself unless Alfred asks for that.

He drops to his knees between Alfred’s legs, pulls down his towel and puts the head of Alfred’s  penis inside his mouth. Alfred has a foreskin and Arthur sucks it with gusto.

Alfred, oddly enough, has a much stronger reaction than Arthur would have expected. He moans. Loudly. He also runs his fingers through Arthur's hair, making quite a mess.

This encourages Arthur to go faster, use his tongue more, put more of Alfred inside his mouth, trying to extract more reactions from him like that. His efforts are wonderfully rewarded with Alfred producing all sort of different sounds that vary in tone and volume and with Alfred's fingers massaging his scalp delightfully.

Suddenly, however, Alfred pats Arthur on the shoulder and Arthur has to stop to see if everything is fine.

When Arthur lifts his face to look at him, we can clearly see that he is still uneasy and probably ready to be rejected. He waits for Alfred's next words in the same way of a cop waiting for the sudden movement of a criminal with a hostage.

"Hey ... That's good but ... let's do it in a bed." Alfred requests, almost shyly, with red cheeks and the lenses of his glasses blurred.

It is the opposite of everything Arthur had thought he would say and this actually makes Arthur smirks.

"Are you afraid you won’t be able to stand?"

"Shut up." Alfred roll his eyes, and to Arthur's surprise, he picks him up and throws him over one of his shoulders to carry him to his room.

 

 

* * *

  
The setting changes to Alfred's room. This space is surprisingly empty and bland for someone flashy like him. There is nothing on the walls and there are some rips on his striped wallpaper, though it doesn’t even looks that old. The only objects in the room are a double bed, a bedside table with a lamp and a huge wardrobe, which is firmly closed - locked, actually, as you can see by the golden key still in the lock . The bedroom's glass windows overlook the busy streets of the city, dimly lit by yellow streetlights, and at that moment, a lively jazz music can be heard from a distance coming from outside.

After briefly showing these elements in the room, the camera turns to the door, which is opened by a kick from Alfred.

From there, there is a rapid sequence of actions, which seems frantic, charged with urgency. Arthur is thrown onto the bed and barely has time to say "Ouch, my back," before Alfred stands over him and kisses him fervently.

Arthur moans as Alfred practically rips his suit from his body and lifts his shirt up to his ribs. He has some difficulty getting the rest of it out and growls in frustration, so Arthur lifts his back a little and helps him with it. Arthur's hands, after that, go to Alfred's back and his fingers trace Alfred’s spine experimentally. Then Alfred kisses his neck and instead of experimentally touching his back, Arthur begins to simply hold tight to his skin for his dear life, pressing the muscles that Alfred has there.

Alfred is wasting no time. Still biting Arthur’s neck, he soon begins to take his belt off and lower his pants.

Alfred has no patience or hesitation. He is pure instinct and enthusiasm.

Arthur feels his head spin a little. He open his mouth to take a deep breath and a sound comes out of his throat. The sound is suggestive enough to make Alfred stop biting his neck and look at him, smiling in a smug way.

This smile remains incredibly annoying to Arthur.

Arthur suddenly pushes Alfred by the chest, taking advantage of the second in which Alfred is almost falling, to use his legs to hold his waist, roll over him and invert their positions.

Alfred's eyes widen slightly in surprise. Arthur can’t help but smile. He leans over him, removes his glasses and places them at the table beside the bed.

"Are you certain that you want to lay with me?" Arthur decides to check before making his next move. 

Alfred snorts, which makes Arthur very angry for half a second. He doesn’t think he asked a funny question and is offended by that reaction. Fortunately, before Arthur can toss one of the pillows on Alfred’s face and proceed to pick up his clothes and march out of the room, Alfred adds,

"Just laying with you? No, I’m not sure I want that. Now, having sex with you? Yeah, I definitely want that."

This is a relief, given the visible volume in Arthur's underwear.

"You know what I meant." Arthur grunts, putting his hands on Alfred's hips and letting his eyes run down his body.

"Are you just going to look at it or are you going to ride it?" Alfred asks, patting his now fully erect cock. He is big. Ridiculously big. Goddamn alphas.

Arthur scoffs.

"I'm not an omega or a beta woman. I need lubricant and... " he was explaining when suddenly his eyes widened briefly with a realization: Alfred was talking as if he was confident that he would top Arthur. He simply assumed that Arthur would like to be the bottom. Alphas were always like this. Especially those who just wanted to experiment.

Arthur didn’t like the idea of simply following Alfred’s plans for the evening, neither did he like the idea of submitting to the fantasies of a straight alpha just testing out whether he could make a beta man be as submissive to him as an beta woman or an omega would be. Arthur already had a share of experiences with alphas like this and the experiences always felt bitter for him in the end.

"Listen, Jones." Arthur looks at Alfred with a mixture of determination and insecurity at the same time. "If we're going to do this ... I want to top this time."

It's a test. Although Arthur has no problem bottoming, he wants to see if Alfred would still be willing to do it if he was the one on top. Arthur is a beta man and he wants Alfred to be very aware of it.

"Oh, silly Arthur, you say it as if I wouldn’t like to have you on top." Alfred says with a large, provocative grin. Arthur gets awestruck with the fact that Alfred is _still_ instigating him.

Arthur really didn’t expect that answer. Alfred, apparently, wants to have sex with him, no matter the position. The thought of it makes Arthur swallows, feeling his erection throb. He stops thinking about Alfred’s possible reasons to want to have sex with him and starts to think of all the reasons he wants to have sex with Alfred. He want to know how it feels being inside Alfred, he wants to see how he reacts to different touches, he wants to caress all over that hard and strong body...

In a haze of lust, all Arthur can answer is an intrigued ‘hmmm’.

"Pff, you're so shocked that I actually want you on top." Alfred laughs. "You really need to be more confident in yourself, baby."

"Don’t call me that," Arthur complains, starting to kiss Alfred's belly to avoid seeing his annoying face. His touch makes Alfred moans softly.

From that moment, Arthur, determinedly, tries to make Alfred feel good. It’s his pride that is at stake. If he's going to shag Alfred, he'd rather give him the best shag he’s ever had in his life. Besides, Arthur has no idea how much experience the boy has in that position. As far as he knows, that may be his first time, so this is one more reason for him to be careful.

He is patient and careful with the foreplay. He tries to sensitize Alfred's body by distributing kisses from his lower abdomen to his neck while stroking the inside of his thighs. It seems to be working. Alfred's body is gradually getting redder, hotter and more sensitive. In a short time, Arthur just needs to breath against his skin for him to react with a loud sound.

Alfred is surprisingly sensitive, huh?, Arthur notices, arching an eyebrow after seeing Alfred squirm with a mere blow to his neck. Arthur considers himself a good partner, but the reaction that Alfred is having without having his hard-on stimulated seems like something beyond his abilities. Had Alfred never had sex in his life?

Arthur is thinking about it when his wondering is interrupted by Alfred putting his arms around his shoulders to make a request.

"Arthur... the lube ..." Alfred says in a breathless voice, pointing to the bedside table with a nod.

The bottle of lube is inside the only drawer in the table and is easily picked up by Arthur. He quickly notices that it already is halfway used, but with so many things going on physically between him and Alfred, he doesn’t waste time thinking about it too much.

He opens the bottle, dumps some of the contents in his fingers and begins to rub them against each other. When the fluid in them reaches a tolerable temperature, he position himself over Alfred and warns:

"I'm going to put in the first finger, right? It may feel a bit strange at first but ... "

“Arthur, as I said, stop treating me like a beginner, man.” Alfred interrupts him impatiently, shaking his head. “This isn’t my first time.”

Well ... That makes sense, considering his amount of admirers…

"Still, when you bottom for someone is... ”

“This is also not my first time as a bottom.” Alfred cuts in again. “Seriously, Arthur. I don’t know what I will have to do to make you realize that I’m into alphas and beta males. I thought that letting you fuck me would finally get the message across but, somehow, you’re still confused about that.”  
  
Oh. OH.   
  
“So you’re...?”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
“But you’re a major celebrity!”   
  
“Yeah and that automatically changes what I’m into.” Alfred rebuts sarcastically. Yet another surprise, since Arthur didn’t even know that Alfred was able to use sarcasm.“Come on, Arthur. On the past, you were famous AND pretty open about feeling attraction for all types and genders.”

"Those were different times." Arthur replies in a dry tone. 

“I know, geez. Don’t waste time discussing this with me. The point is... _I_ want _you_ to fuck me...” Alfred says, grabbing Arthur by the waist and pulling him closer. “... and _you_ want to fuck _me_ ...” Alfred punctuates, rubbing against Arthur's erected member that seems unbearably tight against his underwear. Surprised by this move, Arthur lets a loud moan come out of his throat.“... so let’s just stop with the prep talk and get down to it.”   
  
So down to it they go.   
  
Arthur kisses Alfred hard in the mouth and puts a first finger inside him. He immediately notices that Alfred feels pretty loose. His entire finger enters him without meeting any resistance, which wouldn’t be possible, unless…

"... Have you ... Have you already prepared yourself?" Arthur asks with wide-open eyes.

“Yeah, man. After spending some time with you, certain things about your behavior become very predictable.”  
  
“So…  not only you assumed that we would have sex...” Arthur concludes, moving his finger in and out of Alfred so easily that he decides to already add a second finger “...but you also assumed that I would be on top.”

Two fingers still fit comfortably inside Alfred, but unlike the case with the first finger, which Alfred seemed to barely be feeling, when Arthur starts to scissor him with two fingers, he definitely has a reaction. A good one.  

"That’s ... Well, you ... Ah! You're so suspicious of ... everything and everyone that ... Hm ... "Alfred rubs his back against the bed. "... I ... I figured you'd want to stay on top ... to seem like a man in control of the situation ..."

"Oh? Do I look like a man in control of the situation now?" Arthur questions, arching an eyebrow.

"Sorry but no. You did exactly what I wanted and hoped you would do. "Alfred smiles triumphantly. What a prick. 

“Fuck you.”   
  
“You could be doing it now but you’re... ah... for some reason, wasting a bunch of time...” Alfred says and close his eyes while moaning in a way that almost sounds like a complain.   
  
“I’m being _considerate_ , you bloody wanker. I don’t know if you ever heard that word!” Arthur yells at him as he carefully inserts a third finger.

Although he feels that Alfred is already open enough to handle his cock, he doesn’t want Alfred to just take it. He wants Alfred to feel good. Really good. So good that it will ruin Alfred's sex life because he won’t be able to stop earning that same sensation again, though he won’t be able to archive it with other partner.

As the third finger enters Alfred, it meets a slight resistance in his muscles that is quick to vanish. Arthur is able to open Alfred wide. And more importantly, he manages to do that and make Alfred feel good at the same time.

When he touches Alfred's red and hot dick, about to masturbate him to compensate the lad for not having found his prostate yet, it’s Alfred who interrupts him, holding his arm in place and shaking his head.

“Shit, Arthur... If you do that, I’m gonna come…” he admits and then begs with bright and needy eyes “Just fuck me already... Please.”   
  
This makes Arthur breathless and he can only answer with a nod because his tongue is unable to form the right words.     
  
He pulls down his underwear revealing his cock to Alfred. He is not as big as Alfred, but Alfred seems satisfied with his size, considering that he licks his lips when he sees it  and mutters a soft ‘oh, fuck, fuck, fuck...’ with raw desire.

Arthur doesn’t think he can hold himself for too long.

“Just so you know...” he states, lining up at Alfred's entrance “I still think you’re an arsehole.”  
  
“Same.” Alfred says and then he moans loudly as Arthur penetrates him.

Arthur closes his eyes, breathing deeply. Beads of sweat run down his forehead. He moves slowly, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tries to ignore how warm and soft Alfred is inside and how wonderful the pressure feels around his dick while he carefully enters Alfred.

At a certain point, Alfred exhales deeply, wrapping his arms around Arthur's shoulders.  
  
"Does it hurt?" Arthur checks. He is not moving yet. He is just waiting for Alfred’s body to get used to him.

"No ..." Alfred sighs. His voice sounds a little shaky. "It feels good. Please, start moving right away. I really don’t know how long I will be able to last... "

Arthur rests his hands on the bed and immediately tries to respond to Alfred’s request. However, the angle isn’t working. Arthur's expression and the stiffness in his arms and shoulders shows that he is having difficulty bearing his own weight in that position.

He tries to make an adjustment, shifting his position and trying to hold on to Alfred's legs instead of supporting himself on the bed, but …

"Ouch! I'm not that flexible. You can’t open my legs any more than that. "

Arthur takes it off.  

“On your hands and knees then.”  
  
“Oh, nice!”

Alfred assumes the requested position and tilts the back of his body upward, to give Arthur better access to his entrance. Now Arthur can support more of his body’s weight on his knees, which is easier for him. He puts his arms around Alfred’s waist and easily gets back inside him. The angle this time is just right. Arthur starts to move once again, first very slowly but quickly speeding up because, damn, that is working. Soon, Alfred is the one begging him to hurry and moving his own hips to feel more of Arthur inside. Arthur grunts. Alfred moans and gasps.

Then, Arthur bites Alfred's ear and Alfred hides his face against the pillow, trying to muffle the sounds coming out of his mouth. Without giving him any breaks, Arthur starts to play with his nipples while still moving inside him.

"I ... Ah ... Sorry ... I don’t have very sensitive nipples." Alfred admits and Arthur stops messing with them.

"Where are you sensitive?" Arthur whispers against Alfred's ear, and Alfred makes a little squeak, squirming under Arthur. "Oh… Sensitive ears, then. This is ironic, considering how loud you always are."

“You seem to like me being loud.” Alfred points out with a teasing smile.

Arthur, in response, thrusts him even harder, trying to make Alfred shut up. Well ... shut up about that (fair) accusation. Arthur won’t give it to Alfred but he knows Alfred is right. Arthur really likes to make Alfred very noisy.

Still thrusting him, he sucks at Alfred’s earlobe, caressing the sides of his body and making Alfred ache for more and more until he finally touches his dick. 

“OH, FUCK!” Alfred screams suddenly and Arthur sees this and the sudden pressure that Alfred's body is doing on him as a sign that he is close. He slows down somewhat of his thrusts to concentrate on Alfred's sensitized member.“Fuck, Arthur! Fuck! Fu...!"

A thick line of white liquid comes out of Alfred’s body, staining his sheets and when it finally stops, he practically collapses on the bed.

Although Arthur is still not done, he allows himself to rest as well. He's exhausted, so without thinking much of it, he collapses as well on Alfred's back and tries to catch his breath.

"You have ... lucky ... that I am … hmm…  strong enough to handle your weight ..." Alfred comments with his eyes closed and a smile on his face. He looks completely relaxed. "Ah, that was good... "

"I could see that." Arthur replies, oozing cockiness. "You lasted a lot less than I expected."

“Hey, give me a break.” Alfred grumbles, making a face while keeping his eyes closed. "You have no idea how long I've wanted this ...”

Arthur has an idea. Quickly, the flashback of the moment he first saw Alfred and consequently wanted Alfred for the first time passes before our eyes.

“I think I have an idea.” Arthur says.

"No, you don’t." Alfred retorts immediately, stretching himself. He looks tired. Noticing it, Arthur gets of him, stands up and leaves the bed. For some reason, that surprises Alfred.

"Where are you going?" he frowns, confused.

"Uh ... to your bathroom," Arthur responds with some discomfort. He’s afraid that Alfred will see that he’s being considerate towards him and mock him for it, so he decides to add a snarky remark "I don’t have a low resistance like yours."

Instead of getting offended, upon hearing this, Alfred quickly shifts his position, crawling in the bed towards Arthur and then sitting right in front of him.   
  
“Hey, let me blow you.”

Arthur's jaw falls a little. He honestly thought that Alfred would mock him for being considerate and Alfred was now being considerate himself!

“Really?” he blinks surprised.   
  
“Yeah.” Alfred nods, licking his lips and glancing at Arthur’s hard member.

Before Arthur has an opportunity to ask himself why this is happening, Alfred grabs his cock and puts some of it into his mouth and Arthur's body writhes a little, involuntarily.

"D-Don’t you want me to wash myself first? That was inside you ... "

"I washed myself." Alfred answers, briefly taking his mouth out of Arthur's cock.

“Yeah, I noticed but...”

"Shh, relax." Alfred assures him in a soft voice that sends shivers down Arthur's skin. "I want this."

After saying it, he puts his mouth to work again, letting his tongue run down Arthur's length, following a vein that stands out in it. Arthur groans and holds Alfred's shoulders, feeling his legs failing him. Alfred realizes this and smiles.

Alfred, then, lets Arthur go inside his mouth again. He puts his head first and then more and more ... Damn. He is able put a good chunk of Arthur in his mouth. Arthur begins to make louder and more desperate sounds, closing his eyes and biting his lower lip.

The tension in Arthur's body shows that he wants to thrust inside Alfred’s mouth. That he's controlling himself not to do that. And Alfred compensates for it, swiftly moving Arthur's cock into his mouth, pressing the tip against his palate. Slurping sounds and saliva are trickling down the corners of Alfred's mouth. Like Alfred, his oral sex is accelerated, noisy and messy. Like Alfred, it still manages to make Arthur react like nothing else in his life.

In a short time, this becomes too much for Arthur to handle.

"Oh, Alfred ... Please, please do not stop ..." he begs, dragging his fingernails in Alfred's shoulders. "Please ... I need this ..."

Alfred, in that instant, does something incredible and slides his tongue at the bottom of Arthur's cock as he moves it in and out his mouth. It is at this point that Arthur closes his eyes tightly, opens his mouth and lets a bunch of words escape his lips. What he says is so fast that you can hardly understand the content of his words. It’s a mixture of a frequent repetition of Alfred's name, exclamations like "oh my god" and "more!" and broken phrases such as "I need ...", "I can’t ..." and finally all those words dissolve and he simply let out a bunch of "ah, ah" sounds that get higher and higher until ...

 

* * *

  
  
We cut to moments later, with both of them lying in bed, without clothes, but covered to the waist with different sheets. Alfred is smiling at the ceiling, his arms and pillow folded under his head. Arthur is facing the other side of the bed, with his eyes closed and his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

"Stop smiling." Arthur demands.

"You're not even looking at me. How do you know I'm smiling?"

“I know.”

Alfred laughs.

"You're sleeping here, right?" he asks, turning to Arthur and touching his shoulder.

Arthur opens his eyes and shrinks a little before answering in a quiet voice:

"I'm too tired to go home now ..."

Alfred lets out a happy gasp and hugs him from behind.  

"On a second thought, I still have time to go back home." Arthur threatens, before closing his eyes again.

Getting the memo, Alfred makes a pout, releases Arthur and sits to pull the cord in his bed side lamp. With the lights off, everything goes dark and this scene ends.  

* * *

  
The last angle we saw was that of the lamp over Alfred’s table next to the bed, and it is from this angle that we return to Alfred’s room. There’s sunlight coming through the windows and filling the room, but we can see a person still in bed, covered by a sheet and rolling from side to side, looking for a comfortable position, which quickly shows that there is no longer a second person in bed or they would already be thrown at the floor by this person movements.

We watch that for a few seconds until the person in question finally gets out the sheet and we see Arthur with his messy hair and a still sleepy face.

He rubs his eyes and looks around, before he breathes a sigh of resignation.

"Ah, the classic sigh of  'this was a bad decision.'. I think I've seen it in some of your films."

The direction of Arthur's gaze (just like ours) goes to the bedroom’s door where is Alfred, wearing only pants and glasses with a tray that holds up a cup and a plate full of waffles. Alfred isn’t looking regretful or even uncomfortable. Nothing of the sort. He smiles more radiantly than the morning sun.

"How can you be so energetic after yesterday?" Arthur grumbles.

“I’m 21, baby.” Alfred winks, sitting on the bed at Arthur’s side and offering him his breakfast tray. “I brought you some food... ”

The waffles look pretty good and steam comes out of the coffee cup, indicating that it is still warm. Arthur stares at the food, unable to process what is happening.

"What do you want from me?" he asks Alfred. He tries to sound confrontational but ends up sounding just vulnerable. His voice comes out soft and almost disappears into thin air.

Alfred looks serious for a moment and looks down. He opens his mouth, as if about to give an answer, and then closes it again. Arthur looks at him expectantly, hoping to get a explanation.

Instead, Alfred grabs a waffle and places it against Arthur’s mouth with a smile.

"Well, a ‘thanks’ would be a good thing!"

With that, Arthur calms himself a little bit and begins to chew a waffle, putting his hands on it so he can eat it on his own. The waffle is soft and warm. After the first bite, he devours it eagerly, while Alfred watches him with an almost dreamy look on his face.

When Arthur looks up at Alfred, he feels shy. He can feel his cheeks flush.

“... Thank you.” Arthur mutters.  
  
“You eat like a hamster.”

"I hate you," Arthur replies, finishing his waffle and sipping the coffee Alfred brought to him. Quickly, he put  his tongue out with a grimace. "So bitter!"

“Like you, baby. Like you.” Alfred teases.   
  
“Don’t make me throw it on your face.” Arthur threatens, leaving the coffee on the tray and going back to eating the waffles.

Alfred drinks the coffee for him with a content smile.

"So ..." he says between a sip and another "Last night was pretty fun."

Arthur's shoulders tighten. He looks away and freezes in the middle of a bite.

"Yeah ... It was nice enough, I suppose," he admits reluctantly.

"Oh, it was more than ‘nice enough’. I know that. You may not like me that much, but you certainly enjoy having sex with me. "Alfred retorts confidently, resting his cheek in one hand.

Arthur looks at him, affronted. It seems that he wants to deny this accusation but can’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he just shakes his head and comments disapprovingly: 

“You are such a cheeky brat.”

“You should have said that I’m cocky. It would be more funny considering the context.” Alfred points out.

Arthur rolls his eyes. Alfred has a sense of humor, that much he can acknowledge.   
  
He’s also… pretty wild on the bedroom department. Quite spectacular, in fact.

'What are we going to do now?' Arthur thinks. He wants to ask Alfred this, but he fears the answer and fears even more how he himself would react to it. He holds himself back, deferring his decision by eating excruciatingly slow the last piece of waffle left.

Seeing his delay to finish with his food, Alfred takes the last sip of his coffee, puts the cup back on the tray and gets out the bed.

"I'm going to take a bath. I have some scenes to record this morning. I know we washed each other last night, but do you want to join me?" he casually offers.

Arthur almost chokes at hearing this.

"I-I ... I wasn’t even ... I didn’t want to ...!" Arthur tries to respond

"Well, I'm going to take my shower. If you want to come, you would be welcome. "Alfred simply states, waving to Arthur and leaving the room with  the door left open behind him.

Arthur is still sitting on the bed and looks at his tray thoughtfully.

He knows he has to make an important decision now. The future of his relationship with Alfred depends on how he will proceed.

From the signs that Alfred was sending him, he seemed willing to go on with it. There were so many ways he could make the situation weird, and he had done nothing of the sort. On the contrary. With his smiling, flirty, and only mildly teasing attitude, he was subtly but perceptibly showing Arthur that the night they had was something they could repeat without further drama.

The question was ... did Arthur want this kind of involvement with him? Before the previous night, he was sure that he didn’t. He thought Alfred just wanted to experiment with him. That he would be selfish before, during, and after the act. Hate sex could be thrilling at the moment but very, very tiresome and guilt-inducing later. So he deduced that sleeping with Alfred would be a bad idea.

However, Alfred managed to surprise him.

Arthur remembers how great his breakfast was. He remembers a scene we didn’t see before but we see now, with Alfred helping him the night before to wash himself in his bathtub because Arthur was too exhausted to do it on his own. He remembers Alfred helping him reach his peak even after he had reached his. He remembers how Alfred had already prepared himself for him. He remembers Alfred eagerly accepting to be in a position that made Arthur more comfortable and saying that he needed to have more confidence in himself.

Alfred could be a very annoying co-worker, but as a lover, he seemed considerate enough to earn some credit.

Arthur looks at the door. The sound of water running can be heard, quite discreetly, in the background.

There are still several reasons why sleeping with Alfred again would be a bad idea.

Arthur remembers when he met Alfred years ago, and the look of admiration that the boy gave him. He remembers their second meeting and how that memory came to stab him right in the chest. He remembers Alfred improvising and stealing his scene for the first time. He remembers Alfred saying to him, straight at his face, " _Sorry for disappointing you, but I really don’t have to waste my talent on you, Kirkland_.". He recalls several, several times when Alfred challenged him and teased him throughout the recordings …

And yet, he can’t say to himself, ‘I never want to sleep with him again’.

Arthur needs to learn more about him before taking this decision. Aware of this, he stands up with a determined look and marches to Alfred's bathroom, knocking on his door. Now that Arthur is standing up, we can see that he still has no clothes on his body.

"You can come in!" Alfred answers.

Arthur opens the door. Alfred is washing his hair, sitting in his bathtub. Water runs through his body. He looks great when he's wet, Arthur notes, biting his bottom lip.

"Will you join me?" Alfred asks cheerfully.

Arthur, without saying a word, sits down with Alfred in the tub and, before Alfred says anything else, Arthur leans over him and kisses him.

Alfred gets confused at first and tries to ask something, but Arthur smothers that question with his tongue. Alfred quickly relaxes in his arms, wrapping Arthur around the waist and pulling him onto his lap.

They continue to kiss with enthusiasm and with an added touch of familiarity and comfort over the past experience. It's much easier for Arthur to do that now.

When his lips part so they can catch their breath, Alfred warns Arthur, seeming to feel a little guilty:

“I can’t let you do me again... I’m still recovering...”

Arthur hugs him, shaking his head.

“I want you to do me this time.”  Arthur informs him.   
  
“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

"... I want to, but ... I still have to take my bath ..." Alfred admits in a reluctant and worried voice, rubbing the back of his neck. "Also, I don’t know if it would be good to mix the soap, the water and the lube inside you ... I don’t want to hurt you or anything."

Arthur ends up hiding his face against Alfred's shoulder, hiding a wave of affection that passes through it. 

“Just use my thighs.” Arthur requests, almost in a whisper. With their bodies that close, Arthur can feel Alfred's heart racing against his chest.

Arthur wants to get tested. He wants to see if the second time will be as good as the first. He wants to see if Alfred is equally good at the top as he is as a bottom. Deep down, he has the hope that Alfred will be a terrible top, so bad in fact that Arthur will never want to have sex with him again because of it. That would make the entire situation so much simpler.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it will be that simple. When Alfred hugs him a little stronger and starts to gently kiss his neck, Arthur notices himself starting to get hard and a hot feeling spreading all over his body that makes him feel like he could melt in that bathtub.

Alfred begins to run his hands all over him, groping Arthur’s body as if they are in complete darkness and he were trying to memorize every part of him. When his hands reach Arthur's buttocks and squeeze them, Arthur ends up biting his shoulder to muffle a loud sound coming from his mouth.

Water and soap make their skins slide easily over one another. Arthur takes advantage of this to rub his cock against Alfred's. They both react to that. Alfred groans and closes his eyes. Arthur opens his mouth and tosses his head back a little. The feeling is incredible and when Alfred puts his hand over Arthur's, helping him set a good pace for both of them, it becomes so freaking good that Arthur feels some saliva drip from the corner of his mouth at some point. In a short time, they’re both completely hard.

“Can... Can you, please, get up?” Alfred request with such a clear need in his eyes that Arthur grunts and wiggle in his lap approvingly in response to it. “Fuck... I just... If you stand, it would be easier to fuck your thighs... Also... I still have to get the lube..."

Arthur wants desperately to make it easier for him, so he steps out of Alfred's bath and rests his hands on the bathroom wall, waiting in the right position as Alfred rushes quickly to get the lube. He almost trips when he returns to the bathroom but he is able to regain his balance just in time and lifts the lubricant in the air victoriously.

Arthur huffs and rolls his eyes but he smiles.

“Be careful.” he think it’s necessary to advice that giant clumsy man.    
  
“Don’t worry, don’t worry!” Alfred says, hugging him from behind and kissing repetitively the back of his neck.“I promise I will be very careful with you!”   
  
“No, I mean about...” Arthur tries to correct Alfred’s mistaken interpretation of his words but before he is able to do so, he ends up biting his lip to muffle some groans when Alfred begins to suck on a point on his neck.

Alfred takes the lube and puts a good portion in the palm of his hands, rubbing them quickly against each other. He proceeds to touch Arthur's inner thighs, spreading the viscous liquid on his skin.

Anticipation causes Arthur to move his hips involuntarily. Taking notice of it, Alfred leans close to his ear and whispers while still spreading the lubricant between his legs:

“I’m going to fuck you so good. So fucking hard. I’m going to make you really feel me, baby.

Arthur closes his eyes, letting out a deep grunt. His hands slide against the wall.

Alfred makes his first attempt to place his cock between his thighs. He has some difficulty getting it right since he can’t see Arthur’s legs properly without his glasses. First, he puts it too high, almost hitting Arthur entrance when he moves. Then, he tries to correct himself but bumps his cock onto Arthur's thigh instead of putting it in the space between them. Finally, third time does the trick and he manages to position himself right where he should be. 

  
“Okay, baby, now make your thighs nice and tight for me.” he breathes hotly against Arthur’s ear.

Arthur does just that, pressing his thighs as hard as he can one against the other, trying to be as tight as he can for Alfred. Alfred then places his hands on his waist, presses his face between Arthur's neck and shoulder and starts to move.

The skin in Arthur's inner-thighs is a fairly sensitive region and he really likes the feeling of friction there. The slight burn is so incredibly good for him that it causes a tingle to run from Arthur's neck to his toes. This, coupled with the sensation of Alfred's with his hands caressing his waist and his stomach and the audictive stimulation that is to hear the gasps that Alfred is letting out at every thrust that he gives, make Arthur go absolutely crazy.

Alfred goes faster and faster, holding Arthur more and more firmly. He bites Arthur's neck, as if trying to leave a mark on him. Then, he slides his tongue through the skin until his lips reach Arthur’s ear and he whispers dangerously “Are you feeling good, baby? Come on, keep them legs tight for me. Make me come and I will make you come. Keep still and I will make you feel so damn good, baby.”. Arthur lets out a deep and long moan.

Alfred's instincts are making him a bit more aggressive. Still, Arthur doesn’t mind that at all. Alfred isn’t being too rough. Just rough enough to make Arthur feel desired, thrilled and absolutely horny.

It's ridiculous how well Arthur is feeling. He squeezes his lips shut and yet he isn’t able to contain all the sounds coming from deep in his throat. He looks up at the ceiling and runs his tongue over his lower lip, with a concentrated expression, trying his best to maintain his self-control. This proves more and more difficult. It is easy to see in his face that it is increasingly difficult for him to restrain himself. He is almost at his limits and his own effort to contain himself is only making him more turned on and closer to the point of losing all control. His thighs begin to shake, and if it were not Alfred's strong hold on him, his knees would have failed him long ago.

Alfred is also close, Arthur can feel it. He is moaning and nibbling Arthur's neck. At this point he is too turned on to continue his dirty talk, however he is careful enough to grab Arthur’s dick at this point and stroke him to the same rhythm as his thrusts.

At this moment, our angle of vision changes and we watch them from behind. Alfred's body practically covers Arthur's because of their size difference and we can’t see much of what is happening, but we can hear. The sounds of the skin in Arthur’s thighs slapping against each other and the sounds of their groans, gasps and moans reach their maximum volume, echoing through the walls of the bathroom until suddenly a long silence falls, broken only by the soft sound of their breathing.

At that point, we see Arthur's face again. He is red, sweaty, and his eyes are wide and bright. He has an almost unbelieving expression on his face, like he can’t even believe that he just felt what he felt.

Happy and relaxed, Alfred yawns, nuzzling against his neck.   
  
“We really should do it again....” he comments.   
  
“Yes.”  Arthur agrees immediately. “We should.”   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again, guys! I hope you have enjoyed this new chapter!!! 
> 
> Your support is so important to me and I appreciate all the reviews and kudos that you leave!>.<
> 
> Thank you to littlemaple again for your help with revising the chapter! Special thanks to thedoctorwatcheshetalia, OffBrandRamen, NightWings_Nightingale, Slightlyoutofdateyoghurt, joanat_uncle, tea_sparks, ZurithiaXeli, caramelarschhut, Teapot1923, FleshDelirium and MaddieC for leaving kudos and thanks to everybody who left reviews! I answered all of them!^^ 
> 
> Please continue to give me feedback so I can continue to be motivated to work on this story!^_^
> 
> Take care and have a lovely day ~


	6. Awful Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of NSFW but not as much as in the previous chapter!

We go back to the studio where a new scenario is set, ready for the next scene. The setting is Dracula's dining room with a large table, lit only by a chandelier, where Jonathan Harker is seated at. He eats a piece of meat without much of an appetite until he gets interrupted by Dracula putting a hand over his shoulder. The focus of the camera on Jonathan's face, and the darkness of the environment, makes it look like Dracula's hand came from nowhere. A bit of a scary moment for the viewers, though not for Jonathan, who simply keeps eating with a sad look on his face. 

"You're certainly taking a long time to eat your dinner. Is the meal not to your liking?” inquires Dracula.

"Oh, that's not it." Jonathan Harker shakes his head. He absentmindedly takes Dracula's hand off his shoulder and briefly frowns, but soon returns to a softer, subtler expression of discontent. "I’m sorry for worrying you. I was just ... I was just thinking about my wife, Mina."

"Your wife?" Dracula asks, emitting an educated amount of curiosity. He's still close enough to be able to touch Jonathan effortlessly. "Is there something wrong with her?"

"Well, she didn’t like the fact that we're spending our honeymoon in Transylvania." Jonathan sighs regretfully. "I explained to her that I had to come here for work, but she's still upset. She said I don’t know how to treat an omega.”

"I see. Do you think this is a fair accusation?" Dracula asks a little amused, folding his arms over his chest.

"A little, maybe." Jonathan admits thoughtfully. "I had no experience with omegas before my wedding. I admit that I don’t know how to be romantic. Perhaps my constant dedication to my work hasn’t been beneficial to my relationship...  Oh, my dear Dracula." Jonathan looks at the sinister figure at his side with sadness, seeking help. "What can I do?"

A zoom in Dracula's green eyes makes them appear more dangerous and provocative at the same time.

"If you want to seduce someone, show them what you have to offer." Dracula says while slowly, carefully, leaning over Jonathan. "Stand by their side, make them trust you ..." He places his hand on one of Jonathan's shoulders and slides it to his neck, which he carefully caresses. “Be extremely gentle with them and then …”

“... Then?”   
  
“Attack.” Dracula smiles, moving away from Jonathan suddenly. From this new position, a shadow covers part of his face.   
  
“ _ CUT!” _

As soon as this word reverberates in the air, Arthur and Alfred immediately drop their act and express their true current emotions. Arthur reacting with some shyness, which he disguises with feigned annoyance. Alfred, on the other hand, just looks unabashedly  pleased with himself.

"Wow, now that was a scene!" Francis says excitedly, waggling in his chair. "Sensuality and suspense at the same time! I knew these changes in the script would make the story more exciting!"

"I still find it stupid how a powerful vampire as Dracula might feel attracted to this dumb alpha, who can’t even perceive the most obvious flirting." Arthur huffs, holding the collar of his waistcoat to fan himself with it. He's a bit sweaty and red.

"Maybe his attraction has something to do with my perfect physique. You'd be surprised at the people it succeeds in attracting." Alfred grins and Arthur, who understands the implication of those words, gives him a glare in return.

"Arthur, be quiet. You know nothing of romance." Francis scoffs at him immediately, before adding with renewed enthusiasm. "Oh, I'm a genius!"

Francis isn’t the only one who seems happy. The other people around the set are all exchanging impressed looks. They sigh and they giggle with a ‘did you see it?’ kind of semblance.

And while everybody else is distracted, Alfred and Arthur's eyes are fixed on each other.

 

* * *

  
A fade-out marks the transition of that scene into a new one, establishing an implied connection between them.

Suddenly, we are in the bedroom of Alfred's apartment, in the middle of the night, with only the light of the lamp shining in the room and with the naked body of Arthur on his. Arthur is moving up and down, frantically, as Alfred moans and groans, squeezing his buttocks approvingly.

"Come on, Artie," he says in a hoarse voice. "I know you ... Ah ..." Alfred's voice is breathless and rather sharp. It becomes like that when he's aroused. "I-I know you won’t be able to keep going on like this ... let me get on top of you ... Before your legs give up …”

"A-As if you would ... ah ... do it ... better than me! Anyone's legs would give up ...! "Arthur protests while letting out sounds of sheer delight. Every fiber in his expression, every small movement in his body conveys that feeling Alfred’s cock inside him is making him go crazy. His hips are shaking, his eyes are tightly closed, and beads of sweat are running all over his body. His expression is charged with intense, wild pleasure and enormous mental effort to restrain it.

"Heh ..." Alfred smirks, but he can’t keep his composure for long, before closing his eyes again and opening his mouth to moan. "I could ... I could…  keep this up… even if we were doing it against the wall ..."

"Yeah?" Arthur teases, moving even faster. As a beta man, he has a very good spot inside him and getting in that position, with a big partner like Alfred, he manages to hit it multiple times.

"Yeah, even if we were doing it… against the table … or on the floor ... Ah ..." Alfred clenches his jaw and suddenly grasps the sheets.

Realizing that he is close, Arthur begins to touch himself. At this point, their movements become slower and less synchronized, but they still feel good. So, so good.

"In ... In the SHOWER ...! ARGH!”

With one last and vigorous thrust, and his hands pressing hard on Arthur's hips, Alfred reaches his orgasm.

A few seconds later, we see Arthur opening his mouth and throwing his head back with wide eyes and a white jet is expelled from his body, making a mess in Alfred's torso.

Soon after that, both of them catch their breath with their eyes closed, still processing everything they did and felt.

Only then does Arthur allow his legs to give up and let his body collapse over his partner. He holds Alfred's shoulders and rests his head on his chest. Alfred, in return, places his arms around Arthur’s waist, enveloping him in a slightly reluctant and extremely cautious embrace.

"You really hold it until the end, huh? I have to do better next time. "Alfred laughs.

In this post-coitus moment, in which they both are tired and still feeling the effect of of their orgasms, there is an unusual intimacy between them that makes their behavior change slightly. Alfred, usually too competitive to care about the feelings of others, becomes surprisingly caring and attentive at such times. Arthur, always on guard, becomes a little more open and sincere. More vulnerable as well.

"I can’t believe I'm in your bed again ..." Arthur groans. "For the fifth time ... Or is it the sixth?"

"You better believe it, babe. Dreams do come true. I’m so happy for you ... "

Arthur immediately gives a reproachful little slap on his chest, which makes Alfred chuckle.

Confirming the suggestion of Arthur's line, that some time passed between this scene and the scene of the first time they slept together, we can infer from Arthur and Alfred’s body language that they are used to their current position. It doesn’t seem the first time they embraced each other like this. Even though Arthur would never admit it out loud, there is a notable, comfortable familiarity between them now.

"Tell me something about yourself." Alfred suddenly asks. He looks excited, like a dog asking for a treat.

One thing Arthur learned about the kid the last time they slept together is that Alfred is still talkative after sex. He always wants to talk after they're done. Curiously, it's never about sex itself. It’s simply about everyday things. He talks about himself and asks Arthur a lot of things.

At first, Arthur avoided his questions and simply listened to Alfred’s blabbering in silence. However, he realized that this made Alfred somewhat blue and drastically reduced the chances of them having a second round. Both of those things greatly displeased him, therefore he decided he could entertain the boy and answer his questions. So far, Alfred had not used the information obtained against him.

"What would you like to know?" Arthur asks, with his eyes closed, trying to get some rest.

"Do you prefer cats or dogs?"

"Cats. Ten thousand times cats. "Arthur admits with a small smile, remembering his cats. "Let me guess, you prefer dogs."

Alfred finds this answer funny.  

"Do you think I prefer dogs just because you prefer cats?"

“Am I wrong?”

"No." Alfred admits. "I wish I could take care of a dog but I don’t have time for that. Do you have cats? "

"Yes, I do." Arthur responds almost victoriously. "Six of them, actually."

“Six!”

"Cats are independent and clean." Arthur boasts about his cats. "They're practically roommates for me."

“What are their names?”

Arthur loves to talk about his cats, but no one ever asks him about it. Hearing this question, Arthur feels his heart speed up a bit. He opens his eyes, raises his face a little, and looks at Alfred with undisguised enthusiasm.

"Well, their names are Romeo, Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Ophelia and Macbeth. Romeo and Juliet are two years old. I adopted them more recently because I found them on the street and couldn’t resist bringing them home! Othello is five years old. I adopted him after another of my cats passed away. Ophelia must be about eight years old. I received them as a gift from a friend. Hamlet is twelve! Still, if you saw him ... He has more energy than the younger ones. Macbeth is fourteen years old. She's already an old lady. She was about five when I adopted her. Each of one of them has a unique personality! Romeo...!” suddenly, as if realizing that he is talking too much about a subject that Alfred have no real interest in, Arthur stop himself, clearing his throat and trying to appear more composed, while adding the conclusion. “...  Those are their names."

“Okay, but what were you talking about before?" Alfred asks with a warm smile and a look of legitimate interest. "Do they have different personalities? Different how?"

Arthur freezes up. He closes his eyes tightly for a moment and sighs. We can hear the beating of his racing heart. He is astonished. No one cared about these things. No one wanted to hear about his life, let alone about his cats…

"Romeo ..." Arthur starts to say in a voice filled with hesitation and fear. His eyes don’t dare meeting Alfred's. "Well ... Romeo is a little naughty. He often does things he shouldn’t do... "

"I thought all cats were perfect roommates." Alfred jokes.

This line works like a magic spell and the tension immediately escapes from Arthur's body as if it just poofed. Arthur Kirkland rolls his eyes, laughing and slapping his partner on the shoulder.

"He is perfect. He's just playful." Arthur retorts and then he continues in a softer and happier tone “Well, Juliet, in turn, is more timid. She stays most of the day hidden under my bed and ... "

The camera moves from Alfred's bed to his bedroom’s window and the sound of Arthur's voice continues, but it becomes gradually muffled to the audience as the sound of a jazz song becomes clearer and louder.

 

* * *

 

The music changes and the camera slowly returns to the bed. Now, Alfred is on top of Arthur, standing beside the bed, while Arthur lays on it. He thrusts into Arthur frantically. Arthur lets out low moans and run his hands on Alfred’s hips, encouragingly. Alfred is shirtless, but his pants are just down. Arthur is wearing his shirt, but has nothing on the lower part of his body. Their missing pieces of clothes are scattered all over the room, as if taken off in a hurry.

For a while, there’s a lot of sounds and movements. Then, everything calms down.

The camera focuses on Alfred's expression of raw sexual pleasure as he tries to regain control of himself after his orgasm.

Arthur, with bright eyes and his face flushed and sweaty, opens his arms and allows Alfred to fall over him, which he quickly does.

"Ahh, that was great." Alfred comments, pressing his face against Arthur's shoulder.

"I can’t believe I did it with you aga..." Arthur starts to lament.

"I know, babe. I know. Every day you say that.” Alfred interrupts him.

"Urgh." Arthur covers his face with his hands. "Please, don’t throw in my face the fact we're doing this every day."

"Hey, don’t talk about it like it's some kind of torture for you," Alfred complains. "You come after me as much as I go after you."

This, unfortunately, is true. We have a confirmation of it by seeing several flashbacks of Arthur knocking on Alfred's dressing room door, shortly after the recordings of the day, and jumping on him as soon as he realizes that they’re alone.

"... I'm a good actor, so having to pretend that I want you, in front of the cameras, makes me ... "  he tries an excuse.

"Pff. Come on, Artie. So all this time I was being grabbed by Dracula?"

"It sounds kinda ridiculous when you say it like that," Arthur concedes. "Well, we're both guilty, then."

“We're not guilty of anything. We’re just sleeping together."

Arthur sighs and stares at Alfred's ceiling for a moment before asking,

"Can you get off of me? I want to get in a more comfortable position. "

“Yes, sir!”

Arthur scowls at Alfred who just laughs and roll to the other side of the bed. Arthur adjusts his position, feeling his back almost thank him for that.

For a while, they lay side-by-side in comfortable silence. 

“Listen, Arthur, I...” 

"Our work with the movie is nearly done."

They end up talking at the same time.

"What were you going to say?" Arthur asks.

"Oh, nothing." Alfred scratches the back of his neck. "Yes, we’re close to finishing it. I think we have about two more weeks of recording and that's it."

“Huh... Time went by so...”    
  
“Fast, right? I know.”   
  
“No, slowly. I thought this movie would never end.” 

Alfred chuckles. He seems used to hearing this sort of remark coming from Arthur and doesn’t take offense on it.

"What do you intend to do after this movie?" he inquiries, gently touching Arthur’s cheek.

"Why would I tell you? So you can follow me?"

He's just teasing Alfred, but for some reason, after listening to that, the poor boy blushes up to his ears.

“Yeah, sure! As if! Hah!” he exclaims, laughing way too loudly.

He starts rubbing the back of his neck and his eyes end up wandering in the direction of his wardrobe. Arthur notices it, of course.

"Now that I think about it, I've never seen your wardrobe open all this time I've been here," he can’t resist pointing it out. "What do you hide in it? Human bones?"

"Nothing much," Alfred says quickly. Maybe a little too fast.

"Why do you lock it, then?"

"What is this? An interrogation? M-Maybe I like to have some privacy! It's not like I hid the key, anyway!"

"Don’t overreact. Considering that you asked me several things about my life, it seemed fair to me to ask some questions back." Arthur shrugs.

"It's ... It's different! Though I do ask a lot of questions, I’m always careful to not ask about sensitive topics!"

We watch a series of flashbacks with Alfred asking questions like ‘What is your favorite color?’, ‘What is your favorite movie?’, ‘What do you like to do in your free time?’ and so on. It’s true that Alfred never asked something too personal or rude to Arthur, even though he had every opportunity to do so. Arthur Kirkland is aware of that, however, he doesn’t like losing a discussion.

"I never restricted you from asking about sensitive topics," he retorts.

"It's not like you're going to answer them, anyway."

"Try me."

Alfred's eyes widen slightly. It’s obvious that he wasn’t expecting this course for their conversation.

“Can… Can I really do it?”

Arthur nods but swallows hard, nervous. He already seems slightly remorseful of what he just said.

"Okay ... I'll ask you about a sensitive topic, then.”

_ Oh, dear lord. I hope he doesn’t ask me who my best sexual partner was. I refuse to admit that it was him. If he asks, who can I say that was? Maybe if I lie and say it was another person, he’s going to get upset. On the other hand, if I admit it was him, I may never be able to look myself in the mirror again… _

“My sensitive question is..." Alfred caresses Arthur’s face, running his thumb over his left cheek. "What are you plans for after this movie is over?"

Oh. 

"You …” Arthur blinks slowly. “You've already asked that question," he points out. 

“Yeah, and I didn’t got an answer. Therefore, it’s a sensitive topic. Therefore, you have to answer me this time or you’re losing this challenge.”

Alfred is a fool, Arthur thinks with a tender smile, shaking his head.

"As always, I'll see which villain roles are available and apply for them. Hopefully, I can go well in an audition and work on a new movie."

“Don’t you have anything more specific than that in mind?” Alfred finds it odd. Of course, he does.

"I can’t  _ afford _ to have anything specific in mind." Arthur answers acidly, trying his best to contain a cold rush of melancholy flowing through his heart. "It’s not like I can go into a studio and assume I can get whatever role that I want."

“Sometimes, I wish that you believed more in yourself.”

These words, gently and sincerely spoken by Alfred, leave Arthur open-mouthed and utterly incredulous. Who was that person saying that? Had the devil finally left Alfred's body?

"After all, for someone to be stealing scenes from me, that person has to be really good," Alfred adds with a confident smile.

Now, that sounds more like him. Cheeky brat. Still, Arthur acknowledges that he’s being supportive in his own way. Maybe his intent is different, but Arthur appreciates the gesture, nonetheless. He closes his eyes and smiles peacefully.    
  


* * *

  
  
Although Arthur doesn’t want to admit it, something has changed in him.

This isn’t the first time something has changed in him lately. During the recording of that movie, he has certainly acquired an almost childish competitiveness and perhaps a little more confidence in himself than he should have, considering his situation in life. His sexual appetite has also grown, which is something he considers unavoidable, given that he is sleeping with a man with the body of a Greek god almost every night.

This new change, however, was the most peculiar and the most frightening of all. He still doesn’t fully understand it and he is afraid of the consequences of understanding it.

The fact is that Arthur has paid a lot of attention to Alfred lately. It's really annoying how he can’t help himself about it. His gaze is naturally drawn towards Alfred as the insects are drawn to the light.

What's worse is that he's not just paying attention to Alfred's acting methods. No, that he could justify for himself. He's also paying attention to Alfred himself, to his mannerisms and quirks, even when he’s not in front of the cameras.

Like a sponge, Arthur ends up absorbing every detail on Alfred’s surface. He notices that Alfred has the habit of putting his hands in his pockets when he is tense. That Alfred likes to spend his free time reading comic books and listening to jazz recordings. That Alfred knows how to recite a bunch of old movie lines. That Alfred takes particular care in getting rid of the natural smell of alpha, taking many baths and always wearing cologne. That Alfred is somewhat uncomfortable with the sexual attention of omegas. That Alfred disguises this by smiling a lot at them.

The audience can also notice all of it by watching a series of brief scenes, from Arthur's point of view, in which all these little things occur.

There’s a final important detail about Alfred: before recording a particularly challenging scene, he always asks for time alone to prepare himself mentally.

We get to see a scene in which Arthur goes after him to tell him to hurry up and sees Alfred gazing tenderly at something in his hand. Noticing Arthur's presence behind him, he hastily puts the object in his pocket and says in a rather loud, breathless voice, "Ah, you there?"

The look he gave the mysterious object was of pure devotion. It was the kind of look that a young man would only give for the portrait of a loved one. Perhaps it really was the portrait of a loved one in his hands. This incident makes Arthur wonder if Alfred has secret feelings for anyone. Possibly an alpha or a beta man who is not interested in alphas and is unable to reciprocate his feelings.

However, Arthur doesn’t care about that, he tells himself. That means nothing to him. The only thing that connects him to Alfred is sexual compatibility. He doesn’t care if Alfred likes someone else. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t care...

 

* * *

  
  
“Your eyebrows look even bigger when you’re frowning.” Alfred states in a low voice, poking Arthur's forehead.

Suddenly, we see Arthur on a chair in the studio, in front of the setting. He seems to be waiting his turn to record a scene and we realize that all the previous scenes showed to us were his daydreams.

Alfred is standing in front of him with a big smile. His Jonathan Harker’s clothes are slightly messy after the action scene he recorded. A brief moment of tension in Arthur's expression shows that he wants to feel angry at the younger actor. He really wants to. He can’t.

"Oh, shut up." He pushes Alfred's arm away from him.

"No creativity for insults today?"

"Honestly, not even the last day of recordings, can you give me a break?" he asks with a weary sigh.

"It's precisely because it's the last day that I can’t leave you alone for a second." Alfred immediately responds with a beaming smile that makes Arthur blush. He goes to Arthur’s side and stands there, looking forward. "What did you think of my last scene? You seemed to be in deep thought during it. "

"I wasn’t paying attention to your scene, actually. I was thinking about something else.”

Alfred pouts at this and put his hands in his pockets, but he still tries to look casual and nonchalant.

“Oh, really? About what?”

Bloody hell. Arthur also tries to appear casual and nonchalant.

"In our last scene…” he improvises a lie. “Dracula and Jonathan’s farewell while Dracula's castle is destroyed by the fire set by a vampire hunter. I can’t believe that Francis has decided for a dramatic ending. He's always so commercial. "

"He gave several hints throughout the movie that Jonathan and Dracula were the perfect couple, so ... the story could only have a sad ending." Alfred concludes with a bitter smile.

Arthur can’t disguise how hard that sentence hits him. He takes a deep breath and put his arms around his body.

Seeing this, Alfred looks regretful, a little worried, and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry, I ..." he begins to say, but is interrupted by Francis shouting 'Come here, my protagonists! Let's record the last scene and have some champagne after that!'.

* * *

  
The setting of the final scene is one of the grandest. A controlled fire is placed next to a window in  the corridor of Dracula’s castle where Jonathan and Dracula are and there’s dry ice around to imitate the smoke.

In this scene, the castle is on fire because a vampire hunter came to destroy Dracula. It’s day time so Dracula has nowhere to run. Jonathan, who had initially been startled by the revelation that his host was a vampire, had originally contacted this vampire hunter to rescue him and despite realizing a few days after that Dracula didn’t mean any harm and telling just that to the vampire hunter, it was too late to change his mind about the attack.

Dracula, therefore, has to convince Jonathan to run away with his wife and leave him behind because this is really the end for him.

For this scene, Arthur is in his only costume. It looks a bit better though. He fixed the wear on it all by himself because, in the end, he really wants that movie to be a good one. As silly as its premise was, however irritating it might have been to work with Alfred and Francis, Arthur actually devoted himself to it and he wants it to succeed. This movie was the most exhausting and yet exciting project he has been on for years. Despite always thinking that he couldn’t wait to get rid of that job, now that it is finally close to the end, he feels... slightly moody.

By the way Alfred is waving and winking at his co-workers that wish him luck, Alfred doesn’t seem to feel the same way. He is looking great in all the ways possible. Even in clothes intentionally torn to reflect his previous action scenes, he seems dashing. He truly has the charm of a hero and, obviously, he will go to much larger productions after their work is done here.

Arthur takes a deep breath to control his anxiety, which is increasing for reasons he doesn’t quite understand. He clenches his fists and tries to make eye contact with Alfred, attempting a silent conversation, but his co-star has no glasses on, so he just continues to smile looking aimlessly at Arthur’s direction. Oh, bollocks. 

“ _ Action! _ ”

"Go," Dracula says quietly, gazing nobly at the flames in the window. "There's still time for you to run away. If you help me now, they will chase you too."

"I can’t simply run away!" Jonathan exclaims sadly. He tries to get close to Dracula and hold his arm, but the vampire retreats a few steps.

"You need to run away," Dracula insists, staring at Jonathan Harker. He is being firm, but his voice is slightly choked with emotion. "Your wife, Mina, will die if you hesitate. Go away now. "

Alfred's semblance is immediately filled with intense sadness and Arthur is startled by it. Wow ... The kid really evolved as an actor.

"I have lured the vampire hunter here ... I will never be able to forgive myself if he causes your death. My dear friend Dracula, you gave me so much advice and so many laughs... "

"I'm a monster," Dracula states coldly. "I devoured other people and would have devoured you."

“But you didn’t.” Jonathan says softly. "Why?"

"Because ..." for some reason, the words don’t come out easily from Arthur's mouth. They almost feel trapped on his tongue. He bites his lower lip hard and looks at the floor. His reluctance to say that line is real and he feels completely lost by it. Why can’t he bring himself to say the line? "Because ... I ..."

“You?” Alfred encourages him in a patient tone.

Knowing that this moment, the last moment of the two acting together, isn’t a competition, reassures Arthur a little. However, at the same time, it makes his heart ache.

"Because ... Because the more I knew you and the longer I spent by your side ..." Dracula says with trembling lips and slightly teary eyes. "... the harder it became to imagine never seeing you again.”

At that moment, Jonathan Harker should look away, let go of Dracula's arm and say "So that’s a good bye, huh?", to which Dracula would reply with a sad smile, "Apparently, yes", and Jonathan would say his last line, "I will never forget our conversations, my friend."

It would be subtle. Very subtle. Enough to leave some tension in the air, but not enough to scandalize the families watching that moment on the big screen.

It's a scene drastically different from the one that actually occurs when Alfred suddenly pulls Arthur by the arm and kisses him straight on the mouth.

Arthur’s eyes become wide open at this and his eyebrows almost jump aways from his forehead.

What's Alfred doing?! He's not following the script! Well, he always improvised over the script, but ... but ...! This time…! This was…!

Alfred ends the kiss with a look as confused as Arthur's. It seems that what he just did wasn’t part of his plans. His eyes are large like plates. He is nervous, stunned and adorably red. Arthur can’t take his eyes off him. 

“Ah… I… I... ”

Francis hadn’t yelled ‘Cut!’ yet.

"You?" Arthur encourages him in a patient tone.

Alfred ends up smiling. He is still beet-red and nervous, but he brings himself to say the line:

"I'll never forget our conversations, my... friend."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again, guys! I hope you have enjoyed this new chapter! Sorry for being late with this one! I was busy organizing the usukustwiceperyear event.
> 
> Since next chapter will be the last, I would like you guys to vote on which story for the collection I should write next! I will write both eventually so your vote would be only to decide the order!
> 
> \- A murder mistery with werewolves in a Victorian setting.
> 
> \- A story that shows that there's no age to be yourself and find love. Alfred and Arthur would be in their 50s. 
> 
> Please let your vote on your comments!
> 
> Thank you so much, IxiePixie, for your help revising this chapter! Also, a special thanks to Tovarich, kinginchief, AmeAmeAme, ArchonX and Heudexfor leaving kudos and thanks to everybody who left reviews! I answered all of them!^^
> 
> Take care and have a lovely day ~


	7. Dangerous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the last chapter yet because the last chapter was getting too long and I divided it into two chapters! Sorry!

A  new scene opens with Arthur sitting in his sofa, reading a book and petting the head of a cat lying on his lap while others stroll around his room. There’s a lampshade on top of a cabinet, emitting a soft yellow light that prevents the penumbra in the room from becoming complete darkness.

This peaceful moment is broken by the sound of knocks on Arthur’s door. Unexpected knocks considering the confused glance Arthur exchanges with the cat at his lap at hearing this. The sound keeps repeating, insistently, making Arthur put his book aside and go to the door to check what is going on.

"Arthur, my old friend! Come on, leave your cats aside for a moment. We have much to talk about.”

Urgh, it had to be Francis. Of course. Who else would it be?

Arthur grunts in disgust and opens the door with a sour expression.

“What do you want?”

Francis shakes his index finger with a smile. He is dressed in winter clothes, which show that some time has passed since the scene we last saw.

"My dear Arthur, don’t you know that the first thing you say to a visitor is ‘welcome to my home'?" Arthur’s annoying and unexpected guest dares to tease him.

"You would have been a visitor if you had been invited, and that clearly was not the case.", Arthur tells him, and although he sounds a little bitter, he doesn’t appear to be that surprised. He seems somehow used to sudden visits from Francis in the middle of the night.

“Why, is it really a surprise that I'm here? You didn’t come to any of the celebratory parties after the recordings were done, so evidently, we have matters that you need to catch up on." Francis tells him, boldly entering Arthur’s flat, taking off his coat and hanging it behind the door, acting almost as casually as he would in his own house. "By the way, I have to say that a certain Alfred F. Jones missed you a lot. He asked about you all the time."

Arthur gulps and looks away. He knows he's blushing.

“I wonder what is going on between you two ~”  

What goes through Arthur Kirkland’s mind at this instant is the following:

_ Oh, nothing. I just spend every night since we recorded our last scene together, wanting to talk to him but not having the guts to do it. I miss having sex with him and I miss talking to him and I feel ridiculous for feeling this way because, certainly, he perceives everything we experienced together as part of a game. Still, I cannot help but think that he has sides that I truly admire, such as his dedication to becoming a better actor and the attentive manner in which he treats the other members of our staff. He is funny, creative and he has passion. He manages to make my days more vibrant, even if they also get annoying on occasion. Still, I think that he sees me as a failed actor and I don’t think I could really win over his heart. Actually, I don’t even want to think about the idea of my heart being won over by him, so I'm trying to ignore this thought every day by distracting myself with books. _

"Oh, nothing," is all that he says.

Francis doesn’t look convinced. He just seems entertained.  

"You're a better actor than that, Arthur Kirkland. At least try to convince me next time. "he mocks while sitting on his sofa and being promptly climbed upon by Arthur's cats.

Arthur tries to think in a proper answer but before he manages to do it, Francis raises a hand to say:

"Very well, I won’t insist on this matter." he concedes graciously. "I can see that talking about it makes you agitated and I don’t want you to drive me out of your house before I talk about the subject that brought me here."

That was weird. Arthur didn’t imagine that this unexpected visit had any purpose besides annoying him.

“Did something happen?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. 

"Sit here." Francis pats the place on the sofa right next to his. "We need to talk.”

One of Arthur’s cats tries to lay in the place that Francis just patted and Arthur is forced to remove his feline friend and get his place. Although he enjoys spoiling his cats, he knows this is probably going to be an important conversation. Francis rarely gets serious so when he does, it’s usually something to be worried about. Arthur tries not to get too anxious as he sits near Francis but he still crosses his arms over his chest, in a defensive stance, and repeatedly taps his foot on the ground.

"You must know that movie censorship lately has become more rigorous," Francis comments, ignoring some of Arthur's cats walking over his shoulders. "With this new body responsible for ensuring the defense of morality and ‘good values’, there are new rules being implemented every day."

Arthur thinks he knows where Francis is going with this line of thought.

"I've heard of it. Although I didn’t get in any trouble with it ... until now. "

"That kissing scene might have been a little too much," Francis states bluntly.

Arthur hates the fact that he mentioned the kiss. He was trying to not think about it! Now, immediately, a flashback of that moment comes to his mind with details that he would rather not remember so clearly: the sensation of Alfred's lips and hands, the smell of his cologne, his absolutely charming and dumb expression after the kiss ... Urgh.

"You can take it off if you want. I don’t care. It wasn’t even in the script, anyway. "Arthur rushes to say.

"I know I can do it but I thought of an alternative. Would you like to hear it?"

Sometimes it is necessary to cut a scene at a crucial time to cause tension in the audience. That would be one of those moments. This scene is cut off at this point.

* * *

 

Once again, we see Arthur sitting on his sofa, reading a book, with a cat perched on his lap, when, suddenly, someone knocks on his door. This scene seems extremely familiar, but it is different. Besides the fact that Arthur is wearing different clothes, the knocking on the door is much stronger and faster this time. It sounds like the police before a raid or like a murder victim trying to escape their tragic destiny. One way or another, Arthur gets startled and, although this is a very stupid reaction, he follows his first instinct and runs to the door, opening it without even checking who is at the other side. 

Then, he sees it. Not the police but Alfred Fucking Jones. He doesn’t even look like he was about to get killed either! In a second, Arthur’s genuinely frightful expression becomes a furious one.

“Why are you pounding on my door in the middle of the night?! Also, how in the blazes did you found out where I live?”

"Relax, okay?" Alfred tries to calm him down but he sounds like he’s the one with reasons to scold Arthur. For some reason, he seems very impatient. “I had to come here for professional reasons, so Francis gave me your address."

Professional reasons... This is certainly reassuring, but at the same time, Arthur can’t help but have a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach with the idea that, well, that's all he is for Alfred now. A co-worker that he needs to meet for professional reasons. This feels especially painful considering how fine Alfred is in the long coat he is wearing. A winter look really suits him.

“What else there is to say about that? I have no involvement with post-production or marketing." Arthur is unable to disguise a hint of resentment in his voice.

"Seriously, don’t take me for an idiot.” Alfred suddenly snaps at him, clenching his fists. “I know what you did. I know what decision you made. I know you have accepted Francis's offer. Don’t you have any shame? How can you accept to forge your identity and pretend to be a new omega actor?!"

Though Alfred is usually loud, he sounds unbearably so when he’s saying something that shouldn’t be heard by other people in a place where they can hear it.

Quickly, Arthur grabs Alfred's arm and pulls him into his flat, closing the door right after that. Only in the security and privacy of his flat, he feels comfortable enough to get in a fight with the youngest actor.

“What are you thinking?! Don’t talk about a subject like this in the middle of my hall!”

Alfred rolls his eyes. Fucking prick. His attitude is even worse than usual.

“Francis’s plan is stupid," he tells Arthur, getting straight to the point. "In fact, I think this is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard in my life and, look, I’ve already received an offer to make a movie in which a giant gorilla falls in love with a woman.” Arthur sneers a bit but Alfred continues serious, upset and maybe even a bit disappointed. “I'm… I’m not surprised Francis has thought of something that ridiculous. I’m surprised that  _ you  _ went along with him. How could you? I don’t understand what you're thinking. 

Arthur lowers his gaze. He feels...  many different emotions at the same time, some of them very conflicting. He tries to keep them in under control. He knows he has to. He isn’t going to act like an explosive alpha or as an emotive omega. He is a fucking beta.

"I had my reasons to make that decision." he declares in a dry tone. "You don’t have to know or understand what I was thinking."

Unexpectedly, instead of just reacting to Arthur’s explanation with some bitterness and resignation, Alfred takes these words as if Arthur just insulted his entire family.

"I know that I don’t HAVE to understand! I just WANT to understand!" he exclaims frustrated. “Arthur, you're a phenomenal actor! It’s ridiculous to take your credit off a movie! Especially for such a dumb reason! Besides, what makes you think no one will recognize you?!"

Arthur doesn’t ignore the compliment that Alfred ended up making in the heat of the moment. A ‘phenomenal actor’, huh? He almost feels like smiling. However, being giddy doesn’t seem right, considering that Alfred is still yelling at him, so he decides to try to stay expressionless and silent, just to be safe. His silence makes Alfred take his hands out of his pockets and use them to cover his own face. Suddenly, he looks exhausted.

"I know you're not stupid,” he says in a surprisingly softly manner. “I know you can take care of yourself ... So… What's driving you to do this? I really don’t understand."

Arthur’s emotional defenses were already up but, suddenly, Alfred asks this question with genuine thoughtfulness, looking convincingly worried... He is taken by surprise, really. Even without thinking about it, he ends up letting his defenses go down.

"I'm hoping that people will find me familiar but still believe in this story since I haven’t been in a successful movie for years," he admits uncomfortably, averting his gaze and placing a hand over one of his shoulders.

"Believe that you're an unknown omega actor," Alfred says this as if this notion is completely ridiculous.

"Considering the amount of makeup that I used for this role and how I was always in the shadows... It's a possibility." Arthur shrugs.

"I’m ... You're ... What the hell, Arthur." Alfred clicks his tongue and frowns, shaking his head. "You can’t be serious. This is ridiculous!"

"It's necessary." Arthur insists, trying to be the voice of reason. "Censors would never approve of a movie with this amount of romantic suggestions between a male beta and an alpha."

"The censors, the censors! Forget about them for a second!" Alfred throws his hands up in exasperation. "If you pretend to be an omega, the movie's romance completely loses its original meaning! What good would it make if the movie was approved like this?! If you're going to have to deny relationships like ours, for this to happen...!"

Relationships like  _ ours _ . This sentence pierces through Arthur's heart, but he knows he can’t be emotional now. This is a serious conversation with important consequences. There's something important that Alfred needs to understand.

"You have to think about the long run, about the future," he explains confidently. "I do think that, eventually, people will discover my true identity. What I’m hoping is that they will discover at a time in which society will have a different view of relationships like…. Jonathan and Dracula’s. This movie can be an important record that people like us have always existed. I really think it can be something to inspire someone someday. I don’t care if I have to lie for a while. I don’t care if I won’t receive the appropriate credits for my work. It's more important for me to keep this movie in its original format and get it approved."

Arthur's eyes glow and burn like stars. There is a passion in them that goes far beyond physical and material passions. There isn’t a single drop of uncertainty in his countenance.

Alfred is taken aback by this and his mouth hangs open for a while. He is silent at first, processing Arthur's words while rummaging through his pockets. Unfortunately, his reflections are short-lived and don’t end up as Arthur expected. 

"I still don’t understand," he grumbles with a pout. "If you want to talk about historical effect, it would be much more important to cut the kiss scene, but keep the romantic subtext between an alpha character and a beta male character than to keep the kiss and make it part of a romance between an alpha and an omega!"

So naive.

Arthur touches the center of his forehead with his fingertips and closes his eyes tightly.

"You think that just by cutting off the kiss scene, we would be safe. Well, I disagree with that. I think that if we don’t lie about my type, they will cut so many scenes from the film that there will be virtually no romantic hints between Dracula and Jonathan Harker. The movie will be only about Jonathan and Mina, alpha and omega. "

"What? So you think that our movie will end up either being or appearing to be a romance between an alpha and an omega one way or another? No matter what?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I think."

"I... I don’t think so!" Alfred exclaims. His voice is loud and aggressive, but too high-pitched to sound confident. He is clearly in denial. Arthur looks at him with a bit of pity until he adds "You're just scared! You're always afraid to take risks!"

Oh, now that was a low blow. Alfred touched a particularly sore spot.

"Fear of risking? So is this what you think is happening? That I’m just being a coward? "Arthur retorts offended, arching an eyebrow. "And I suppose you're the brave hero in this story?"

"Well, somebody needs to be!"

This answer really annoys the hell out of Arthur.

"Listen, Alfred Franklin Jones, being inconsequential isn’t the same as being brave," Arthur presses his index finger on Alfred’s chest and giving him a hard, cold stare. "You'll only get hurt for no reason if you don’t choose your battles."

"Nothing would change in the world if no one ever risked anything," Alfred retorts, challenging Arthur’s stare with his own. "Besides ... Seriously, Arthur?" he smiles bitterly. "Choose my battles? It’s not like you can tell me something like this when you have so little confidence in yourself that you don’t go into any battles at all. If that's your argument, I'm not convinced."

Arthur's cats start to meow around him. They seem to notice the tension of their owner.

"I don’t care if you're convinced or not. That's what I think," Arthur states with lowered eyes and a frown, putting his arms around his own body, protectively.

It’s very clear that the discussion can’t be continued. Arthur seems very closed and Alfred seems irreducible. Each of them is in his own space now and even when their eyes meet, they don’t connect. So Alfred decides to leave. His hand is already on the doorknob when he informs Arthur:

"Since I'm not convinced - not that you care about it...  I'll tell Francis to just send the movie without the kissing scene.” Alfred declares with eyes full of resolution, stubbornness. “I wanted to work in this movie with Arthur James Kirkland, not with an unknown omega actor."

This...  threat?, makes Arthur nervous. The big irony about that is that he is most nervous about Alfred. After all, that idiot barely knows what he's doing. Arthur could manage his career. He always found a way. Alfred, though? He's a newbie and he knows nothing about the industry ... What if the censors keep an eye in Alfred because of this movie? This could really damage his chances in the industry. Why couldn’t he understand it?

"He won’t listen to you." Arthur tries to intimidate him. Even if just a bit. Even if just enough so that Alfred doesn’t sound so confident when he talks to Francis.

Alfred wavers. The tension in his shoulders becomes very apparent.

"Maybe he'll listen," Alfred answers in a low, hesitant voice. “I'm not afraid to try," he almost challenges but his tone suggests the opposite of his words.

As Alfred walks out the door, we can hear Arthur murmuring:

"It would be good for you if you were a little more scared, you fool. Fear is a feeling that protects you."

Alfred can’t hear him. He's already far down the hall.

The cats rub Arthur’s legs to comfort him.

* * *

We see some brief scenes of Arthur lying in his bed, late at night, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. He had a couple of sleepless nights after his discussion with Alfred and we also get to see the memories that appear in Arthur's thoughts on those nights.

_ You're just scared! You're always afraid to take risks! _

Arthur had been brave in the past. He had the courage to move from England to the United States to try out a film career with barely any money in his pockets. He had the courage to assume his attraction for alphas, betas and omegas of all genders. To be who he was and say what he thought ... He did. A few years ago.

Hollywood was always changing. It moved on and left who couldn’t keep with it behind. Arthur had always thought that he had remained the same while times had changed and that it was not his fault if this had happened. However, thinking about what Alfred had said, Arthur could see that it wasn’t just Hollywood that had changed. He also did. After his fall from fame, he shrank. Not only in other’s people’s eyes but in his own eyes. He was ashamed of how he didn’t fit well into a new age of cinema. and how he was being gradually forgotten and…  he felt defeated, really. He just wanted to disappear. He didn’t even make an attempt to go back to his old glory. To feel that disappointment again would be too painful. When he found a new way back to cinema, he tried to stay in a comfort zone and completely forgot his golden days.

Arthur had no confidence in his ability to keep something important. Be it in his career or his relationships. He was always a star that shone brightly and then faded fast. He had had several affairs in Hollywood, but all ended when things were getting very serious and demanding that he open up more. The only one he hesitated to leave was Francis. Their friendship made it a little easier for Arthur to take a chance on them. That ended badly for him, of course. When he lost his charm and confidence that stemmed from his professional success, Francis told him that he was "no fun anymore" and just like that their ‘arrangement’ was over. To add to the insult, a couple of months later, Francis told him that he only intended to date omegas from that point on and that maybe Arthur should do the same. Just lovely.

His relationship with Francis and Hollywood had taught Arthur that while taking risks seemed so glorious in fiction, it could have devastating consequences in real life. Feelings were a risk, especially love and hope. So for all those years, he tried not to think too much about his emotions. He tried to simply ignore them and focus on his work.

He hadn’t thought about it in years, and yet now that he had been pushed by Alfred to face his feelings, he could see that they still hurt as much as they had in the past. He is still afraid of rejection, of being disappointed, of fighting for nothing...

Suddenly, we see Arthur’s eyes bolt wide open in the middle of the night, while he’s laying in his bed. He realized something.

Fucking hell, Alfred was right. He IS a coward.

* * *

 

In this new scene, Arthur is hanging Christmas lights at his window. The cats seem curious about the new decor as if they have never seen anything like this before. Arthur is humming a Christmas song. His eyes still carry a pain that will take a while to dissipate, but they also seem somehow serene. He looks better in general.

"Please, don’t chew the wires," Arthur requests to his pets. As if on cue, Romeo immediately bites one of the wires, forcing Arthur to push him very lightly with his foot, muttering “Why do you have to be such a rebel?”.

Then, someone knocks at his door.

After all the important scenes that started with someone knocking on Arthur’s door, it’s not strange to see the nervousness that Arthur seems to feel at this sound. Initially, he hesitates to answer the door and looks at his cats as if he wants their help. His cats simply stare back at him, with no indication on their faces that they understand the situation. Arthur has to go and deal with it alone.

"Who is it?" he asks cautiously, approaching the door very slowly.

"Arthur, we need to talk!" replies Francis on the other side.

Francis. Of course, it was Francis.

Arthur opens the door with the typical ‘what the hell do you want?’ expression, that he always gives Francis on his visits, but his jaw drops when he sees that Francis is accompanied by a moping Alfred with messy hair, crumpled clothes, wearing his glasses and a tearful Lily.

What ... What was happening? Was this a visit from his Christmas ghosts?

"Can we come in? We have to talk. Something serious happened," Francis warns him.

"Uh... Sure." awkward, awkward, awkward…. "Is one of you allergic to cats?"

Lily shakes her head. Alfred simply walks in, without saying a word, and throws his body on the sofa, like a plank falling to the floor. With the whole sofa taken by him, Lily and Francis have to bring the chairs from the kitchen table to the living room.

After everybody settles down, Francis doesn’t waste any time in informing Arthur:

"They'll cancel the movie."

Receiving such impactful news so straightforwardly makes Arthur slightly dizzy. He feels like he has been run over by this information.

"What movie?" he blinks confusedly.

“Our movie.”

“... What part of our movie?”

"The whole movie, Arthur. The whole movie.”

Arthur can’t even make a sound in response. He feels every muscle in his body freeze. An entire movie ... Almost a year of filming thrown away. Pretty much a year of his life thrown away. He can barely digest this news.

Lily takes a handkerchief from a pocket in her dress and uses it to wipe thick tears running down her face. Alfred groans against Arthur's cushions.

"Why...?" Arthur asks with wide eyes.

"Because of the inappropriate content, of course," Francis replies with a sardonic smile. "They didn’t like the way Dracula was portrayed. They said that Dracula seemed too sympathetic for a villain and that this can negatively influence audiences. They also disliked how Jonathan and Dracula seemed closer than Jonathan and his wife. The fact that this would be a movie for all audiences made things even worse. They kept yelling 'I can’t believe you wanted to show this to the kids!'."

Arthur doesn’t know yet whether Francis had followed his or Alfred's plan. Either way, everything seems to have gone downhill.

"What are we going to do now?" he asks apprehensively.

"I don’t know," Francis admits, crossing his arms over his chest with a pensive look "I got the news today. I'm still thinking about it. Maybe all we can do is ... accept it."

A whimpering sound comes out of Lily while she blows her nose in her handkerchief.

"It's all my fault," Alfred mumbles, somber, hiding his face against the armrest. "If we had followed your plan maybe…” his voice breaks a little "I ruined everything. That was…  one of the best experiences I've had as an actor, but now… no one will get to watch this movie.”

There was the great Alfred F. Jones sulking and blaming himself entirely for the failure of their movie. The Arthur of the beginning of this story might have possibly felt triumphant in a moment like this. This would be the perfect evidence that he was the superior professional and he was right about what they discussed before…  

That would be great if Arthur actually believed in it. He doesn’t and he hates seeing Alfred like this. Even though he also feels absolutely defeated, seeing Alfred like this... He can't just accept it, really.

That’s why Arthur quickly gets up from his chair, walks to the sofa, kneels in front of it and, to everybody’s shock, grabs Alfred by the head, forcing the younger actor to face him.  

"You're so arrogant even when you're sad! Do you think you’re that important?!"

Alfred looks confused and astonished at this.

“I… Uh…”

"Seriously, Alfred! Do you really think you control the order of the universe?! We've all been involved in this! We all knew what we were doing! Look at Francis!"Arthur points to the director. "He's a lot more guilty than you are and he's not whimpering on my couch about how he ruined everyone's life!"

"HEY!" Francis and Alfred yell together.

Arthur doesn’t back down or hold any punches. He looks at Alfred intensively with his breath quickening.

"You are young and foolish and made a risky decision.” Alfred gets offended and opens his mouth to retort but Arthur gets ahead of him. “However, I’m not as young or foolish as you and I still went along with another risky plan. In the end, either one of them could have gone wrong. We took those risks and we failed together. And you know what? I don’t regret it. It's not our fault if people can’t stand a romance between a beta man and an alpha but if we don’t keep trying to make it happen, it never will! W-What I’m trying to say is, if you’re going to feel bad, feel bad for all the nonsense you do on a daily basis instead of feeling bad for trying to do something important!"

Everyone is silent after this. They stare at Arthur as if they see an alien creature never seen by man before. Arthur begins to feel a little shy.

“Ahn... I mean...” he stutters, taking his hands off Alfred’s face, getting up and turning to Francis and Lily, looking as if he has to justify himself to them. 

Alfred suddenly starts laughing. It's a low but rich laugh that sounds very recomforting.

"Oh, Arthur Kirkland... You always knock me off my feet," he says in an appreciative tone. He stands up, making a ‘hoop!’ sound. He seems more energetic now. The air around him seems lighter.

Arthur still refuses to look at him, though. He’s blushing and staring at the ground, pondering Francis and Lily’s impression of him. Alfred approaches him from behind, wrap his arms around Arthur’s waist and kisses his cheek.

"WHAT ARE YOU...?!" Arthur exclaims, shocked, eyebrows jumping up his forehead and hand immediately going to the part of his face that Alfred just touched.

"It's okay, baby. I understand. My bold personality is what you love about me. I won’t forget that anymore," Alfred nuzzles Arthur’s hair affectionately, holding him tightly and rocking him from side to side.

"That's absolutely NOT what I said!" Arthur rebuts while wiggling, trying to escape from Alfred’s arms with no success. Stupid Alfred and his stupid strong arms. What is he doing? Why is he doing it? Most importantly, why is he doing it in front of other people???

"S-Should we leave?" Lily asks, slightly flushed.

"Well, if there's one good thing about this whole mess, it's the fact that you finally got a boyfriend, Arthur. Congratulations." Francis claps, looking a bit resigned. He, then, stands up from his chair and offers Lily help to do the same.

"We don’t...! Uh...!" Arthur can’t even manage to answer him. Alfred is still hugging him from behind and kissing his cheek repeatedly. Bloody hell. "He's just joking!"

Francis gives Arthur an extremely skeptical look and Lily seems to pity him, almost.

“Are you going already?” Arthur asks, noticing that they are already at the door. Probably realizing the same, Alfred finally releases him and stands by his side. “What are we going to do about the movie?”

"Well, after your speech about how we tried to change the world, I feel better.” Francis smiles and lets out a long-restrained breath. “After all, I was just making two actors with chemistry do sensual things in front of me. It's a relief to have a more honorable excuse for my actions.”

Arthur can’t smile back. He continues to stare anxiously at him. Francis becomes a little more serious.

"At this point, I do not think there's anything I can do. My contacts are no longer as influential as they once were. I'll keep trying, but ... "

Alfred approaches Francis and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I believe things will work out," he tries to comfort his director.

"Well, they'll work out for you, Alfred. You are still young and you never had a public relationship with a beta male or an alpha. They'll probably think you were just a victim of Arthur and I’s evil influence or that you didn’t realize what was happening." Francis sighs resignedly. "Anyway, just keep your mouth shut and you'll escape this mess with no scratches. What the hell. You will probably get in projects way bigger than this. I'm sure money won’t be a problem for you either."

Alfred grimaces. This is not what he wanted to hear, but Francis doesn’t mind if he’s pleased or not with the truth.

"As for you, Lily ..." he turns to her with a look of sincere regard for the young actress. "I'm so sorry. I know you thought that would be your big role. I promise that if I find any way to help you in your career, I will do it. "

"Thank you ..." she replies with a small smile, wiping the corner of her eyes with her fingertips.

"As for you, Arthur ..." Francis speaks without emotion, making eye contact with Arthur as he turns to the doorknob. "When we get to hell, try to find me there."

Arthur rolls his eyes and smirks.

"As if. I know you won’t resist coming after me to bother me. As always."

Alfred passes by Arthur and joins Lily and Francis without saying a word to him. He looks at Arthur, gives him a bittersweet smile and waves. Lily wishes him a lovely evening. The three of them leave Arthur’s flat.

Arthur, overwhelmed, closes the door and proceeds to lay on his floor, letting out a heavy sigh.

The scene ends with him shooshing a cat that tries to sit on his face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep! There will be one more chapter! Sorry, guys!
> 
> Thank you so much for voting for the next story of this series! I stopped counting the votes after a certain point because I had to start the other story in time for it to be posted along with the last chapter of this story but if you sent me your vote in the two or three first days after I updated this story, your vote was totally counted. Also, the interest that I saw in the one that lost motivated me to really make it part of this series (even if a bit later). 
> 
> Also, let me thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all your support! Thank you, Ixie, for helping me revise this story! Thank you Bloodyprussian, PhGim, suptoladdie13, Baskerville2003 and cielobrioche for leaving kudos! Thank you to everyone that left reviews (I answered them all, as always)! You're all so kind! Thank you, really!
> 
> I will be working on the next chapter and the first chapter of the next story of this series! Please keep supporting me by letting me know what you're thinking about this fic! 
> 
> Take care and have a wonderful day ~


	8. Dracula(1931)

A new scene starts with Arthur sitting at his kitchen table, writing a letter and drinking a cup of tea. The camera leans over his shoulder, showing that at the top of the letter there is an ‘Alfred’ in large letters. The word ‘dear’ seems to have been written next to it but scratched over. 

Arthur writes a line. He scratches it. He writes another. He scratches it again.

He then takes another sip of tea and sinks his face into the table.

Perhaps it’s dangerous to have hopes, but since Alfred's last visit, Arthur can’t help thinking that he might have a chance with him. The way he didn’t hesitate to hug and kiss Arthur publicly on that day was really… meaningful.

Maybe this isn’t just a game or a joke for him. Maybe Alfred F. Jones actually likes him. These thoughts keep going through Arthur’s mind.

Knowing that nothing will be solved if they remain silent about it, Arthur had decided to take the initiative to contact him to try to clarify at once what is happening between them.

He takes about a day to create the ideal letter. A letter that isn’t too dramatic or detailed, but instead endowed with charm and honesty. In it, he tells Alfred that the experience of working together with him in the movie was rather fun and that he was open to the possibility of them having dinner together someday.

That's good, right? He doesn’t seem too desperate, right? Oh, no, no. It looks great! How can he think something else? He seems in perfect control of the situation….  He repeats to himself over and over.

* * *

 

After the words "A week later" appear on the screen, we find ourselves looking at a scene in which Arthur gets undeniably disappointed as he passes by his doorman and sees that no correspondence for him has yet come. He walks to his apartment, with a grave look in his face, until he stops walking in the middle of it, when a thought crosses his mind. His letter could have been lost by the post office, he infers with some relief and indignation. Oh, blazes. Why did he trust the damn post office?

He tries to send a letter again. This letter is a little more concise and definitely contaminated with Arthur's anxiety now. ‘We should talk. Tell me when you have some free time.’ is its main message.

Four days pass and he still doesn’t get a response. It may have been another mistake made by the post office or it may be that Alfred is just slow to reply letters but either way, Arthur can’t wait anymore. There is a simpler way to solve the problem: he needs to meet Alfred personally.

He goes to Alfred's apartment, dressed in his finest suit, with a box of chocolates under his arm. Not necessarily Alfred will receive that box, he thinks. If it looks like Arthur is trying to hard, he can simply show the box to Alfred and start eating its content in a show of dominance…!  Urgh, this is getting a little ridiculous, isn’t? He groans, covering his face.

Knocking on Alfred's door, Arthur takes a deep breath. He covers his mouth with his hand for a moment. He is visibly nervous. His face is very red.

Alfred quickly opens the door. He is in surprisingly elegant clothes, considering that he is at home. Oddly, he's without his glasses too, and he needs to lean quite a bit to identify Arthur.

"Artie? What are you doing here?" he arches an eyebrow, confused.

Words immediately evaporate from Arthur's tongue.

“Ah... I... I wanted to... Uh...”

"Who are you talking to, Alfred?" a deep manly voice asks.

Apparently, Alfred has visitors. And not just any visitors. When Alfred turns back to answer his guest with the shocking line "Oh, it's nothing! I'll be right back!", Arthur can see that it's James Walter on his couch, sipping a glass of wine, leisurely. James Walter, a fifty-two-year-old alpha who owns a multimillion-dollar motion picture company. James Walter, who despite being married to an omega, has a reputation for sleeping with other alphas when he feels like it. And this guy is in Alfred's apartment in the middle of the night, having a glass of wine.

Arthur doesn’t need more clues to know what's going on.

His expression quickly sours and he quietly hides the box of chocolates on his coat.

"Arthur, look. I'm dealing with something important here, so unless it's an emergency, can you come back later? "Alfred asks nervously, seeming anxious to get rid of him.

Arthur would like to be angry at Alfred. Being angry would be far less shameful than getting as devastated as he is. He is biting his lower lip hard, really restraining himself from crying. He can’t open his mouth to answer Alfred, because he’s afraid that a sob will come out of it, and he merely responds him with a nod.

"Ah, thank you! We'll talk later!" Alfred says happily, right before closing the door in Arthur's face.

We briefly linger on this dead silent moment, in which Arthur is momentarily paralyzed in front of Alfred's door, and from there, we jump into a scene where he walks alone on the streets, going back home with a seemingly calm expression. However, as he walks past the studio where he recorded with Alfred, his composure breaks. He ends up throwing the box of chocolates on the sidewalk and stepping on it in a fit of anger.

* * *

 

In the current scene, it's late afternoon and Arthur is sitting on his sofa, drinking rum directly from the bottle, in a very bad mood. Possibly his worst mood in years. His cats surround him, worriedly. 

"Hope is a mistake. Love is a mistake," he lectures to his cats. "Never trust actors. Especially if they are young, handsome and charismatic. "

His cats stare at him. They don’t seem to understand anything but, at least, they don’t feel like it’s a good time to climb the sofa.

"Why did he have to do this to me? He could have just used me for sex. He didn’t have to pretend that he cared about what I felt..." Arthur mutters to himself, drinking more sips of his rum. "He didn’t have to do things like prepare my breakfast, ask about my cats and help me bathe... What was he trying to accomplish with that? I don’t understand..."

A knock interrupts his monologue and walking wobbly, with eyes completely lifeless, Arthur goes answer his door. A young, unknown man is there.

“Hello?”

"Hello! Sorry to bother you, Mr. Kirkland. I brought a message from Mr. Bonnefoy. "

Confused, Arthur extends his hand to get the letter. It looks short. He opens it in front of the messenger, reading it immediately. Instead of seeing Arthur’s reaction to the content of this message, we see the patient face of the messenger, waiting for his response.

Meanwhile, Francis's voice in the background read the content of the letter to us:

_ My dear Arthur, I have excellent news. Incredibly positive news. Maybe you won’t even believe me. Oh, I'm smiling just writing this letter! We did it. The movie will be released. We will have to follow the original plan and pretend that you are a new omega actor named James K., but the film will be screened and released in its entirety, including the kiss scene. Oh, it's so good to know that all our efforts weren’t for nothing! Come and celebrate with me and the rest of the team at the Beilschmidt bar. We are waiting for you here. _

"Are you going to send an answer, sir?" the messenger asks when Arthur is finished with it.

After so much suspense, we finally see Arthur’s reaction. He has a small genuine smile on his face and, though his eyes still seem a little discouraged, they have regained a certain glow.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'll go and speak to him myself. "

* * *

 

When Arthur enters the Beilschmidt bar, he sees that many people involved in the movie’s production are there. They are celebrating, drinking together. There is confetti on the floor. A lot of people are bothering Roderich to play something a bit more cheerful with no success as he continues to play a Debussy composition.

Arthur walks around the establishment, rather awkwardly, looking for a place to sit, until Francis, seated at one of the tables, catches his attention, waving and gesturing excitedly for him to come and sit there. Just to piss him off, Arthur still takes a look around, pretending to check if sitting with Francis is really his last option, before (seemingly) resignedly joining him.  

"You weren’t exaggerating when you said that a celebration was happening. I don’t think I've ever seen this place so crowded." Arthur tells Francis as he sits in front of him.

"Oh, but of course. I don’t make small celebrations, my dear." Francis lifts his glass of wine, proud and pleased. "Today is the day for a great, great party. Can you believe it? We did it! The movie will be released for all audiences!"

"To be honest, I’m still processing it… That really was a wild turn of events." Arthur admits with a sigh and a soft smile. "I didn’t think you still had that much influence, Francis. I'm impressed."

"You don’t ever lose the opportunity to compliment me, don’t you?" Francis complains, making a face. "Well, actually ..."

“Hey, Artie!”

The mere sound of Alfred's voice makes Arthur's eyebrows jump and his expression matches that of someone who has just got stabbed in the guts. He puts his hand over his heart and the utterly nervous look on his face reveals that he is wondering if it isn’t possible for him to die with how fast it is beating.

"I thought you wouldn’t come around since you're not exactly a party fan." Alfred smiled, placing a hand on Arthur's shoulder. "So you sent me some letters, right? Sorry, I didn’t read them yet. I was really busy lately!”

When Alfred touches him, a subtle tension spreads across Arthur's face. He doesn’t utter a sound, nor does he turns to Alfred. There’s something heavy about his countenance, that shows that though he is acting quietly on the outside, he is a mess inside and he is restraining himself from dumping all the emotions that are inside him onto Alfred.

Noticing his silence but not his true feelings, Alfred ends up pushing his boundaries a bit too much.

"What's the matter with you? Did one of your cats eat your tongue? " Alfred jokes around, bringing his hand to Arthur’s cheek.

In his current emotional state, Arthur can’t stand being touched by Alfred. Instinctively, he hits Alfred's hand before it reaches his face.

"Can you leave me alone? God, you're annoying." he blurts out.  

There is no note of light-hearted humor in Arthur's words. This is said with harsh honesty.

Alfred, bewildered, laughs uncomfortably.

"Aww, Artie. You know you love me. Don’t play hard to get just because we’re in front of other people ... "

Something about the laid back way in which Alfred talks about it gets on Arthur's nerves.

"Mr. Jones, don’t speak to me," he demands, turning to Alfred and staring hard at him. His tone is as dry as someone speaking to a stranger, but his eyes are filled with very personal anger. "Our work is over and I'm tired of you invading my space all the time just for fun. Please, once in your life, have consideration for my feelings and go away. "

The camera focuses on Arthur's perspective, that is, on the contents of Francis's glass. We see how the purple liquid is moving inside the crystal goblet that Francis shakes nervously. Our focus remains on this image as we hear Alfred say:

"All right. I... I get it. I'll... Uh... Respect your space... We’ll talk later...? "

Arthur doesn’t answer him. Shortly after, we hear Alfred walking away and with that, the camera also moves away and shows us the whole table, allowing the sight of Arthur with his arms crossed on his chest, his face scrunched and tears in the corners of his eyes. Francis is speechless.

“May I ask…?”

“No,” Arthur states immediately, stealing Francis's glass from his hand and drinking all the wine in one gulp.

* * *

 

Throughout the night, Arthur remains at the table, drinking, looking out the window and sighing. He can’t get into the mood to party and is silent most of the time. Only Francis seems to be having fun, interacting with the other team members who pass by his table.

Alfred, from time to time, comes back and tries to talk to Arthur normally as if nothing had happened. When that doesn’t work, he tries to talk to Francis, using that as an opening to talk to Arthur. He is ignored in each of these attempts. As a result, he looks more and more uncomfortable and Francis seems to be gradually getting more annoyed by Arthur's behavior.

Despite being aware of all this, Arthur can’t bring himself to be more polite, even though he feels guilty and a jerk from the way he is acting. The problem is he's not just angry. He's ... Damn, he's hurt. He can’t simply have a friendly talk with Alfred right now!

After an hour of that, Alfred finally seems to have given up. He stops appearing every ten minutes. In fact, Arthur doesn’t see him anywhere in the bar. Maybe he's gone.

Bah, as Francis would say, c’est la vie. At least, that’s what Arthur supposed Francis would say. What Francis actually has to say about all this comes out when the alcohol starts having an effect on him. 

"Look, I can’t stand this awkward silence all night. Tell me, why did you fight with Alfred? You looked like you were happy together!”

"It's none of your business," Arthur replies, with his brows furrowed and his eyes and corners of his mouth lowered. "I'm perfectly fine.”

"Clearly," Francis retorts ironically. "Are you doing that thing in which you push away someone to keep yourself from becoming emotionally involved with them? I already told you that that's not healthy. "

Alcohol is also having some effect on Arthur. He feels much more exalted with that comment that he would on a normal day.

"I did this kind of thing ten years ago, Francis! I've matured!" he slaps his chest, angrily. "I am a mature man now! I know what I'm fucking doing."

"... Right." Francis replies, not at all convinced. "Well, mature man, I won’t interfere on your love affairs, but I will say that you could at least have tried to be polite to Alfred after all he did for us."

Francis had become such an arse-kisser. It was disgusting, frankly.

Arthur rolls his eyes.

"Oh yeah. How dare I not kiss the feet of the great Alfred F. Jones for being kind enough to take part in our plebeian movie?"

For some reason, Francis looks at him completely puzzled. Arthur wonders what is so mysterious about what he is saying. Did Francis really fall so low in his career that he is no longer able to grasp the concept that he didn’t owe his soul to a famous actor because he participated in his movie? For the love of God…

"First things first... I think you kissed more than just his feet," Francis points out. Arthur does a visible effort to restrain himself from turning the table over him. "Second, I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about, you know, the reason for our celebration."

He gives Arthur the kind of look, with arched eyebrows, that you only exchange with someone who knows what you're talking about, which is rather strange because Arthur has no idea what he's talking about. He blinks in confusion and impatience.

Francis, probably noticing that Arthur knows nothing other than acting or caring for cats, adds in the tone of a patient teacher dealing with a difficult student.

"I'm referring to the fact that he’s the responsible for our movie getting approved by the censors."

...

"Wait a minute. What?" 

"He got our movie approved by the censors," Francis repeats. "He contacted a bunch of Hollywood big names, signed a bunch of bad contracts to bargain ... He didn’t have a second to slack around in the last few days. Whenever I tried to talk to him, there was some famous director or producer or politician in his room. We really are lucky that our boy is charismatic and totally inconsequential. Honestly, I wouldn’t risk my career so much if I were in his position ... "

Everything becomes clear to Arthur in seconds. His eyes widen. His pupils dilate. He holds the bottle of rum on the table so hard that it looks as if he's about to break it.

“Oh, shit. Shit, shit. Fuck...”

"What's the matter with you? Your manners are terrible today! Are you trying to prepare yourself to the role of some terrible bastard?" Francis scolds him. His disapproval is the least of Arthur’s problems, though.

The images around Arthur become blurry, looking like they are spinning very fast. It's the chaos of the situation, really. That’s a reflection of how he is feeling.

"Oh, Francis. I did something that I swore to myself that would never do. " he groans, hiding his face between his hands. “I think... I committed the typical communication failure of a romantic comedy protagonist."

Arthur's visible despair contrasts with Francis’s nonchalant behavior, who has his legs crossed while playing with his own hair. Clearly, Francis isn’t surprised with this turn of events, nor drowning in pessimism like Arthur.

"Tsk, tsk. How did you go about making such a mistake? You always complain about this plot device in movies. ‘It’s too predictable and dumb’, you say. "

"I know, I know! I just thought ... It seemed  _ so obvious _ !" Arthur exclaims, holding his head between his hands. "I was already full of insecurities and I made presumptions and ...!"

Cutting in Arthur's series of negative thoughts before they dwell too long, Francis places a heavy hand on his shoulder. Looking into his eyes, he advises seriously:

"Look, if you want to avoid falling in the mistakes of a typical romantic comedy protagonist, then go after him already. Don’t let time go by and things get worse."

“But… But what if…”

"Please, don’t even dare to say the line 'he must hate me now'."

Arthur takes a deep breath. 

Francis’ advice makes sense but he simply can’t get himself to calm down enough to get out and fix what he did. His heart rate is accelerating and becoming louder and louder until it becomes the only ambient sound audible to the audience.

"I don’t think he hates me now, but ..." Arthur runs his tongue over his lips and his fingers on his hair anxiously. "Even if he didn’t sleep with other guys, that doesn’t mean he has romantic feelings for me and if he had ..." a twinge of pain seems to strike Arthur when he says this "... I probably ruined it by now."

"Why don’t you talk to him and find out how he feels?" Francis suggests so very calmly. He doesn’t understand how Arthur feels about this.

"Why? Isn’t it obvious? "Arthur reacts defensively. "Well, it's because...!"

He would like to sound logical and reasonable in his response, but trying to appear in control of the situation and processing what is happening at the same time appears to be too much for him. He can’t keep up appearances and, in the end, simply admits, while covering his face with his hands:

“I’m scared. I’m really, really scared.”

To Arthur's surprise, Francis doesn’t laugh at his face in this moment of vulnerability. He just takes his hand from his shoulder and pulls it over his head, stroking his hair gently to comfort him.

"Just go talk to him," he says warmly. "You know, a person once told me that it was better to risk doing something important than to never try at all and losing the chance for something to happen ... I would like to say that this was a wise person, but to be honest, they are a mess Still, something in those words really impacted me."

Hearing his own advice repeated to himself makes Arthur smile. He even laughs a little and takes his hands off his face, revealing complex feelings in the depth of his eyes. A mixture of determination, fear and, above all, gratitude. Yes, gratitude. For the friend that he made in the midst of the huge mess that was his career and love life and even gratitude for the tumultuous curves of his life that brought him up to that moment.

"Thank you, Francis," Arthur smiles genuinely at him.

"Stop being so emotional. I'm going to vomit." Francis mocks with false disgust, gesturing for him to leave the table. "Now, go right after him. If I wanted to see unnecessary conflicts, I would watch all of my movies again. "

With that said, Arthur wastes no time. He gets up from the table and looks in every direction of the bar, looking for Alfred. The camera reflects his gaze, passing through several unfamiliar faces, quickly.

Alfred isn’t there. 

* * *

 

So, in the next scene, we see Arthur rushing out of the bar, opening the door so fast that it hits the wall beside it. He's looking straight ahead like he's about to chase after Alfred through the streets until he finds him...!

But...

“Oh, shit!”

Arthur turns around as he recognizes Alfred’s squeaked voice, screaming it.

Alfred is right in front of the wall he had just hit the door, and by his terrified look, shrunken shoulders and leaning forward body position, Arthur concludes that he narrowly escaped being hit as well. He had something in his hands, that he is now pressing against his chest, making it hard for Arthur to identify what it can be.

Alfred is looking at Arthur with indignation, his hair slightly standing out with fright.

"What the hell was that?! I know you're in a bad mood today, but that’s too much!" Alfred yells, advancing toward him, with a hand over his chest and his breath quick. "Seriously, I almost ...!"

Alfred keeps screaming at Arthur, but with their new physical proximity, Arthur's curiosity ends up distracting him from their fight and guiding his eyes to the object Alfred is holding so hard. He finally recognizes it.

From that moment on, Alfred's voice becomes muffled and incomprehensible for Arthur and, therefore, for us.

The camera gets closer and closer to this object.

An open pack of cigarettes on which is written:  'To Alfred John Ford, a boy with big dreams, my sincere wishes that they come true. From Arthur James Kirkland”.

As the camera moves away, we see Arthur staring at that pack, with a dumb expression on his face, while Alfred continues to go at him, not realizing what's happening.

"And you can’t simply...! What are you looking at?!" Alfred finally notices his distraction. He follows Arthur's gaze and when he gets his answer, he immediately freezes up.  His eyes turn wide like plates. He looks like a teenager caught up with provocative photos. "Ah, this ...! That's ...!" he desperately tries to put the cigarette pack inside one of his pockets. "I don’t smoke! I mean, I smoke! No, I don’t smoke! That's ... A friend asked me to hold it!"

Alfred is having real difficulties with the simple task of putting that pack in one of his pockets.

He is unable to find his pockets holes intuitively and keep pressing the pack against his coat several times. The fact that he's keeping an eye on Arthur all the time, with what seems like legitimate panic, isn’t helping with the task.

“I… Well… You see…!”

As strange as it may sound, Alfred's nervousness is actually encouraging for Arthur. Seeing Alfred unable to give him a straight answer while he fumbles desperately with the pack that Arthur gave him years ago, instead of simply saying ‘oh yeah, I found this among my old stuff’ as he could have done, funnily enough, makes Arthur feel a lot more confident and comfortable with the situation.

"Alfred ..." Arthur swallows, touching Alfred's arm gently "I ... I recognize this," he admits, looking shyly at his autograph.

This revelation catches Alfred by surprise and he lets his arms fall to the sides, his mouth hanging open.

“... You do?”

Arthur nods. The sound of Chopin’s prelude played in the bar becomes a bit louder, becoming the background music of this scene.

"The premiere of Romeo and Juliet." he smiles wistfully. "I gave my autograph to a kid who wanted to become an actor like me and told him that he still had time to catch up with me if he started right away. I've never forgotten that. I just ... didn’t know if that day meant anything to you. "

Alfred, of course, is in shock.

"You said you had forgotten!" he reminds Arthur accusingly. He looks a little hurt.

"I ... I know." Arthur says, tense. "I was just trying to avoid this subject. It's hard for me to willingly remember my past. I truly didn’t think that moment mattered so much to you. I mean, you became a star and I became just a minor actor with insignificant roles.” he smiles bitterly. “What importance does the past have now? "

“ _ All _ the importance!”

Alfred, suddenly, drops the cigarette pack to the floor and grabs Arthur's shoulders. The look in his eyes is almost desperate but really hesitant at the same time.

“Arthur, you don’t get it! You are...! I  _ always _ ...!”

Even if he looks like he has a lot to say, Alfred can’t manage to organize his words. Possibly, it's precisely because he has a lot to say he can’t bring himself to do it. Frustrated, he mutters a curse word, let go of Arthur's shoulders and covers his forehead with one hand and beginning to walk in circles, seeming to be in deep thought. His face is red and glistening with sweat, despite the cold, snow-covered scenery around them.

As usual,  Alfred's reflections are intense but brief.

Arthur barely has enough time to pick up the old cigarette pack on the ground, before Alfred decides to grab his arm and tell him,

"I have to show you something. Come with me."

* * *

 

We are spared from accompanying Arthur's trip to Alfred’s apartment in Alfred’s car. We only see the car when it arrives on the sidewalk of the building, and then, we move straight to the moment in which Alfred is opening the door of his apartment. From Arthur's face, we can see that this sequence of scenes seems quick, not just for us, but for him as well. He looks as confused as the audience about what is happening.

When they enter Alfred's room, Arthur, who was already lost since he saw that cigarette pack in Alfred’s hands, gets even more lost when Alfred stops in front of his wardrobe door with a grave look in his face.

"You've revealed something important to me, so I'll reveal something important to you," Alfred announces.

This moment slightly reminds him of the Bluebeard story, Arthur thinks, anxious.

He looks at the door as if expecting an explosion. The noises of Alfred turning the key and the creaking of the wooden door as it opens are so much louder than they should be.

The door is finally open. Nothing comes out of it. The room is still peaceful and silent. Arthur isn’t sure of what to do next.

Realizing Arthur's hesitation, Alfred gestures, encouraging him to look at what's inside. That makes Arthur risk peeking into the wardrobe, despite having no idea of what to expect.

Then, he immediately understands why Alfred brought him there.

Inside Alfred's wardrobe, there are a bunch of old posters for movies that Arthur did in his youth. ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Ben-Hur’ are in evidence, while others are carefully wrapped but properly labeled with the name of the movies and the dates in which they were made. They are all Arthur’s movies. It’s an old but very well preserved collection that seems to have been carefully maintained.

Stupefied, Arthur turns to Alfred and blinks slowly at him, still processing the meaning of what he has just seen.

Alfred, flushed, grumbles with his arms crossed over his chest:

"I ... I've always been a fan of your work," he says, unable to look Arthur straight in the eye. "I, uh, still am." Alfred's voice sounds almost strangled by his throat. "All these posters were hung on my wall until the day we kissed for the first time. Only then I took them away and just because I thought 'if one day he comes to sleep with me and he sees all those posters, he'll think I'm just an obsessed fan!'! Still, I didn’t want to get rid of them so I put them here. I've had to put in a lot of work to get some of them, you know. "

Arthur's heartbeat grows louder. His face reveals an emotion impossible to describe in exact terms. The most it can be said is that he looks as if he has found the door to a new world.

He approaches Alfred and puts his hands on his face. Alfred shivers with this simple contact and closes his eyes, exhaling through his mouth.

Who is the person before him?, Arthur wonders. All his perceptions of Alfred until then were based on the instant Alfred challenged and mistreated him ... If that had been an act, who was the real Alfred?

Well, looking past that moment, what he learned about Alfred was that he is…

A really annoying person.

_ "Ah, the classic sigh of 'this was a bad decision.'. I think I've seen it in some of your films." _

A tease.

_ "It takes me a long time to reach my limits, if you know what I mean.” _

Someone who, despite appearing to have an endless ego, is constantly worried about how he is perceived by others.

_ “Do you really think they would want a hero wearing glasses? If I wore them, I would only be able to play the role of the smart and slightly lame friend of the protagonist." _

A boy who deals really poorly with his own feelings.

_ “Urgh! I can’t understand your attitude! I know you're a good person but you're so fucking annoying! I mean, you never even kissed me! Don’t go judging my kisses before you try them!" _

A fan of dogs.

_ I wish I could take care of a dog but I don’t have time for that. _

A person who always pays attention to what Arthur says, even when Arthur says something he doesn’t want to hear.

_ "It's all my fault. If we had followed your plan maybe... I ruined everything. That was…  one of the best experiences I've had as an actor, but now… no one will get to watch this movie. _

Someone who might believe in Arthur more than Arthur believes in himself.

_ “Sometimes, I wish that you believed more in yourself.” _

Someone who isn’t ashamed to be affectionate with Arthur in public.

_ "I'll never forget our conversations, my... friend."                                                       _

Someone who didn’t hesitate to push Arthur to do what he had to do.

_ "You're just scared! You're always afraid to take risks!" _

A dedicated lover. 

_ “Shh, relax. I want this.” _

Someone willing to fight for what he believes.

_ “If you pretend to be an omega, the movie's romance completely loses its original meaning! What good would it make if the movie was approved like this?! If you're going to have to deny relationships like ours, for this to happen...!" _

The person that Arthur has the most fun being with.

_ “My sensitive question is... What are you plans for after this movie is over?" _

"You ..." Arthur caresses Alfred's cheeks carefully, smiling at him, dazedly.

With the last piece of the puzzle in place, he finally understands Alfred. He can see the whole picture now. He finally understands what kind of person Alfred is and he loves him. Yes, he is certain of that now. He loves Alfred F. Jones and Alfred John Ford, the actor who challenges him and the person who pampers him. He loves Alfred with all his faults and qualities.

There is so much he would like to say and do with Alfred and yet there are limits he still doesn’t feel confident about exploring. He is still testing Alfred’s reactions to smaller things, trying to understand everything that has happened.

"You aren’t as much of a prick as you try to appear to be, right?" he asks Alfred, only half joking.

Initially, Alfred hesitates, but finally, he admits:

"No, I'm not," he leans into Arthur's touch but looks a bit defeated in assuming that.

As Arthur had thought, Alfred's previous cruel behavior, not his nice or his playfully annoying side, was his farce.

"I was just excited to work with you, you know?" Alfred explains, pulling away from Arthur, a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck. "You were my hero! You always were! But then, you didn’t remember me and you kept avoiding me, so I thought ‘you know what? If I can’t get his attention being nice, let’s see if I can do it by being annoying.’. It was not the most mature way of handling it, I know " he sighs. "I was just trying to be acknowledged by you as an actor."

‘As an actor’. These words hit Arthur like a bucket of ice.

Ah, so that was the point of everything. That was how Alfred wanted to be acknowledged by Arthur.  'As an actor'.

Arthur feels like an idiot. He can barely disguise his disappointment.

It was flattering that a successful actor like Alfred saw him as an inspiration. Arthur knew he should feel happy about it. Still ... What Arthur wanted ... What he thought was happening ...

“That’s what I wanted at first.”

Apparently, Alfred had not finished what he had to say.

When Arthur looks up, he sees that Alfred is looking directly at him again.

“Things have changed since then.”

Changed how? Arthur arches an eyebrow.

Before answering his silent question, Alfred takes out of his pocket the autographed packet of cigarettes that Arthur returned to him. He starts passing it from hand to hand, quickly, distracting his eyes with the movement. He seems almost used to doing this.

"When I first met you, I quickly realized you weren’t the fantastic hero I had imagined. You had your faults, and you could be really annoying sometimes.” he laughs. “It was a real shock. I always thought you were a being above mere mortals like me, but no." he rolls his eyes, seeming to find the idea legitimately funny now. "You were just another guy. You act incredibly well, but you're also a human like me. When I realized that, I realized we could be, you know, friends. "

Friends...

Arthur bites his lower lip and takes a deep breath.

“You're so funny. And very cute, to be honest. You're also incredibly sexy in certain contexts."Alfred continues to speak, not seeming to be aware that each of these compliments hurts Arthur. "The more I knew you, the more I liked you as a person. With your faults and everything. The complete package. "

That's too much for Arthur. He tries to get Alfred to stop.

"Alfred, I ..." he starts to say with pleading eyes.

Alfred straight-up interrupts him.

"One day, I don’t remember exactly when, but I know that it was shortly after our first kiss ... I realized." Alfred stops moving the pack in his hands and contemplates it for an extra moment before putting it back in his pocket, with a discreet smile. "What I really wanted was not your approval. I just wanted you."

Sometimes, hope is a terrifying feeling. Especially when you can’t avoid it. When it suddenly springs up and grows into you in a rampant rhythm.

"What- What are you saying?" Arthur stutters, hugging his own body, startled by the warm emotion overflowing in his chest.

Alfred doesn’t leave him in suspense for long. He approaches him until he’s standing just a step away from him. He rummages in his pockets, nervously, for a moment, before telling Arthur with a small smile and starkly sweet eyes:

“I’m in love with you.”

Oh, god. That single phrase makes Arthur so, so relieved, that his legs wobble a little. He feels as if he could cry and the corner of his eyes reveal that he is crying a little, even without realizing it. He stares at Alfred, gaping, unable to find the words to say to him, no idea what kind of expression is on his face now.

His exaggerated reaction makes Alfred laugh a little, but it makes him a bit scared too.

“Hey, is everything okay?” he asks, half-joking. 

Arthur's response to that question is to pull Alfred by the coat and kiss him enthusiastically.

He loves Alfred and wants Alfred just like how his body wants water, food, and air. Exhilarated with the fact that Alfred loves him back, he simply doesn’t hold back anymore.

Luckily, Alfred kisses him back at first, causing a stream of euphoria to run through Arthur's body. He hangs on Alfred as if he's climbing a mountain, desperate to bring him closer. He moves his lips against Alfred's, almost devouring them and wraps his arms around his neck, trying to deepen their kiss.

"W-Wait! You taste like alcohol!"Alfred interrupts the kiss suddenly, pushing Arthur's chest. His face seems adorably red but slightly upset. "I'm happy with your reaction, but maybe now is not a good time for this! You still did not even tell me how you feel!"

Arthur looks at Alfred in disbelief that they were interrupted for such a reason.

"You fucking wanker, if you'd read my letters, you'd know how I’ve felt for weeks!" He huffs, lightly slapping Alfred on the shoulder.

"Oh, so you sent me a letter saying that you  loved me?" Alfred asks in delight and surprise.

No, they just had an invitation to dinner. Alfred got the lead at this love-confession thing.

"Not exactly," Arthur admits reluctantly. Urgh, he doesn’t like losing! "Still, you could have inferred it if you had enough literary skills and actually read my letters!" he blurts embarrassedly.

Alfred frowns at him, not understanding a thing.

"Arthur, honestly, you're sounding even more drunk now. Let's leave this conversation for tomorrow. "

Arthur doesn’t want it. He feels incredibly anxious about not solving the issue as soon possible. He has a unconscious, irrational fear that Alfred will disappear with the first rays of the morning, before hearing how he feels.

"I don’t want to wait." he murmurs, head hanging low.

He wants to kiss Alfred. He wants to say that he loves him back. Why is he being prevented from doing this?

Alfred smiles tentatively:

“Please? I would feel way more comfortable if we finished this talk tomorrow.”

Well, what he could do? If it was for Alfred's comfort, Arthur could wait another night.

"Alright, but don’t you think you've won. I'm just tired, "Arthur grunts, walking past Alfred and throwing himself on his bed. He is tired, actually. That day was a mess, emotionally speaking.

Alfred turns at him with a grin, looking pretty dazzling.

“I always think I won,” he answers smugly.

Indeed, he truly looks like a champion while smiling at the image of Arthur laying on his bed.

* * *

 

In the next scene, we get a glimpse of Alfred's back as he washes dishes and hums a tune. It's a beautiful morning. Even the light of the sun surrounding Alfred seems somehow softer and more pure.  

When the camera shifts the focus from Alfred's back to his face and we can see that he is wearing his glasses and has a small smile on his face. Behind him, Arthur appears with the clothes of the previous day crumpled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Alfred?" he asks in a drowsy voice, sounding like he just woke up. "What are you doing?"

Alfred's shoulders jumped a little. He turns to Arthur with a nervous smile, wiping his hands on a dish towel.

"I was just washing the pile of dishes I accumulated over the week. I didn’t want you to see the mess in the kitchen. "Alfred fidgets a bit under Arthur’s intrigued glare.

"Oh," Arthur responds in an emotionless tone, leaning against the kitchen counter.

He is surprisingly quiet and serious and Alfred, clearly, has no idea of how to deal with this kind of behavior coming from him after last night. For a while, he just stares at Arthur, lost on what to do next.

"So ..." Alfred manages to say, looking away. His voice falters a little. "Do you remember anything from last night?"

“I remember everything,” Arthur informs him immediately.

“O-Oh.”

There’s an brief, uncomfortable moment of silence.

"... And how do you feel about what I said?" Alfred asks next, adjusting the collar of his shirt. We get a closer look at the drops of sweat in his neck.

Arthur arches a eyebrow. He takes a step forward, getting face-to-face with Alfred, looking at him with eyes cold as ice.

"Do you really want to know how I feel?" Arthur frowns at him. There’s almost a warning in his tone of voice. "Do you, Alfred?"

The camera focuses on Alfred's face as he closes his eyes tightly.

“A-Actually, you don’t need to... !”

“I love you, you fool. ”

“Huh?”

When Alfred opens his eyes, he sees Arthur with a huge, playful grin on his face.

 

Goddamnit. 

 

"Ahhh, for fuck’s sake, Arthur!" Alfred puts his hand over his heart, breathless, looking just a little bit upset with the love of his life. "You almost killed me now!"

"You deserved it for pretending all this time that you weren’t a fan of my work, "Arthur folds his arms over his chest, looking very proud of himself.

"Fair enough." Alfred concedes with an annoyed pout. "Now, are we even?"

“We’re even.” Arthur keeps the grin on his face. 

With that, the two become quiet again, but this silence seems lighter and more comfortable. Alfred walks over to Arthur, leaning against the counter and standing beside him, only risking quick glances at his direction. Arthur, meanwhile, has a distant, dreamy look and a calm smile and he keeps staring ahead, not looking anywhere in particular.

"So ... when did you fall in love with me?" Alfred asks, curiously.

"I have no idea," Arthur answers, surprisingly easily. "I just know it was after we started sleeping together."

“I am that good, huh?” Alfred smirks.

That makes Arthur laugh and shake his head.

"Shut up, Alfred. We're having a moment."

This response only leaves Alfred in an even more playful mood. He keeps smirking and wiggling his eyebrows at Arthur and Arthur tries to scold him with a grimace initially but ends up laughing again.

"Right, right. You are fantastic in bed. Now, shut up about it, "Arthur acknowledges, rolling his eyes and casually putting his hand over Alfred's.

Once again, they are in a comfortable silence, quietly experiencing that new level of closeness. The close-up of the camera shows how Arthur's hand is gently caressing Alfred's and another close-up shows how Alfred is pushing his shoulder lightly against Arthur's.

“Hey, Arthur.”

“Yes?”

“What are we going to do about the future?”

Arthur exchanges glances with Alfred quickly and he sees that Alfred is incredibly serious about that matter.

"You mean, about our personal lives or..." Arthur blushes a little "... about us?"

“Haha, both, I guess.” Alfred’s laugh sounds a bit stilted, nervous. 

Arthur takes a deep breath and looks at the ceiling.

"About our personal lives, I heard that you have signed several bad contracts to convince influential people to support our movie."

“I can’t deny that.” Alfred smiles sheepishly.

"That's what James Walter visited you for, right?" Arthur asks and before Alfred even opens his mouth, he adds with a low, dry laugh "I thought you were on a date, you know? I ... "Arthur's face gets full of guilt and regret. "I ... I was jealous of you ... Sorry about that. Sorry about how I acted. "

"Ahh. Is that why you were all upset with me all of a sudden? "Alfred realizes with a smile. "I just thought I reached the end of your patience limits!"

"That too, I guess. You can be a prick at times," Arthur grumbles but stops himself before allowing that discussion to go in that direction. It's an important moment! He can’t keep complaining about little things that Alfred did. "Well, that aside ... I was a fool," he admits regretfully, repeatedly tapping his foot against the wall. It is clear that it is difficult for him to talk about his mistakes. He feels exposed and vulnerable. And yet, he continues "I know this is no excuse, but the truth is I was just confused about what was happening between us ..."

Alfred can’t help but smile at him in pure infatuation. Seeing Arthur so worried about his feelings is so rewarding.

"I understand, babe." Alfred comforts him, patting his head with an adoring smile. "To be honest, it's such a relief to be able to talk to you without having to pretend that I'm not crazy about you." He laughs a bit. "Oh man. We were both idiots. "

Arthur leans into his touch. He seems indescribably relieved and closes his eyes, just enjoying Alfred’s touches for a moment. Then, he announces something that Alfred truly didn’t expect to hear,

“Alfred...” he takes a deep breath, “I want to work with you on the bad movies that you will have to do.”

Alfred blinks, stunned, taking Arthur’s hand from his head and staring at him strangely. Is he serious?, is the question written over his face and he soon figures that, yes, Arthur is serious.

"But ... there are several of them!" Alfred argues "Of many genres! And some are almost destined to fail!"

Unaffected by this, Arthur responds with a rare confident smile,

“Don’t worry. I’ve already been going after roles that didn’t demand much of me for such a long. The difference is that this time, I'm going after a weak role with someone who makes me try my best and change things around."

Alfred gets completely red. The look of unabashed happiness, surprise and shyness on his face at this moment is priceless. It clearly makes Arthur very happy.

“Let’s make those awful movies a huge success, Alfred.” he squeezes Alfred's hand just a little bit tighter, practically glimmering. 

Alfred is extremely happy. A little stunned, still, but happy! So very happy! He can barely disguise it. He keeps wiggling around and smiling like a fool, acting like a teenager receiving a love letter from his crush.  Arthur tries to seem a bit more composed than that but he can’t stop smiling as well. 

But despite feeling excited about the idea of working with Arthur, Alfred doesn’t forget the fact that Arthur only talked about their careers, not about their relationship and as soon as his wave of joy goes by, he asks hesitantly,

"And ... about us?”

"I ..." Arthur begins to say, but before finishing the sentence, he presses his lips together and pauses to think. He gulps and ends up deciding to answer Alfred with another question "What do  _ you _ want?"

Alfred's smile practically answers that question, but still, he says to be as clear as possible,

“I want to stay at your side.”

This sentence is so simple and so short and yet so revealing. Arthur's eyes shine. His lips tremble and he seems to want to smile and cry at the same time. His emotions are right at the surface and he needs a moment before saying,

"Okay, stay by my side." He turns to Alfred's side, holding the collar of his shirt, making direct eye contact with him. "Conveniently, I want to be by your side too." he grins.

Alfred does not miss the way Arthur's eyes descend to his lips. His own eyes begin to drift down towards Arthur's lips as well and he slowly, slowly brings their faces closer…

A jazz song begins to play in the background, filling this scene with a cheerful and romantic atmosphere. It begins very discreetly and gradually becomes more present in the scene.

Arthur sighs against Alfred's mouth, closing his eyes and Alfred adjusts the angle of his head, before leaning over and pressing his lips. This kiss starts sweet and hesitant, very much like a first kiss, but soon it becomes more intimate and feels more natural for both of them.

Alfred wraps his arms around Arthur's waist and Arthur smiles against his mouth.

As they continue to kiss, the camera moves away with this image in the center, until it reaches the balcony of Alfred's apartment where snow is falling. The word ‘End’ slowly appears among the snowflakes without breaking the calm beauty of the scene.

* * *

CREDITS 

\- Francis Bonnefoy's "Dracula vs Jonathan Harker" confused and impressed critics and audiences by having an omega character who didn’t really look like an omega. The movie became surprisingly popular and many people were critical of the fact that it wasn’t nominated for any awards. It has become a classic over the years and an inspiration for more movies that challenged gender roles. With the discovery that James K. was, in fact, Arthur Kirkland, this film came to be considered one of the first LGBTQ + works of cinema and is now studied at universities as a historical piece.

\- Francis Bonnefoy, after the success and scandals of "Dracula vs. Jonathan Harker", decided to continue to use his usual format of cheap, simple and repetitive movies. However, due to the impact of "Dracula vs. Jonathan Harker", critics are still looking for ways to look at movies like "Assassin Tomatoes" as a possibly nuanced critique of society.

\- Lily Smith left the big screens and went to work on Broadway, where she managed to overcome her shyness and find tremendous success. She became known not only as an actress but also as an activist for the LGBTQ + cause.

\- Gilbert Beilschmidt's bar has become a historical spot, often visited by tourists. There are still photos in the wall of when Alfred F. Jones and Arthur Kirkland frequented the place. To this day, the ambient music is only played on the piano.

\- Alfred F. Jones became known as an extremely prolific actor who did all sort of roles. He acted extremely well in some and very badly in others. Some critics believe he excelled in films that demanded more body language than facial expressions, possibly because of his strong myopia. After years of being ambiguous about his sexuality, Alfred made the revelation that he had been in a serious relationship with Arthur Kirkland for the last forty years when he participated in a documentary about diversity in Hollywood. He was chosen as one of the sexiest actors in movie history by a celebrity magazine in the eighties.

\- Arthur Kirkland has taken part in almost every film that Alfred F. Jones has done in his career and they have become one of the most iconic duos in cinema history. Some experts believe that the best phase of Arthur's acting started when he began to work with Alfred. "He really gives everything in a scene to compete with Alfred's natural charisma. The results are always amazing". With the revitalization of his career, Arthur invested his salary in the creation of a rescue shelter for cats. Despite always being in secondary roles, Arthur has become recognized as one of the greatest actors of his generation and is often cited as a great inspirational figure for members of the LGBTQ + community.

* * *

 

_A/N: Hello, guys!!! Thank you so much for supporting this story all this time!!! I really can't thank you enough for that!_

_We reached the conclusion of "Golden Days" but it's not the end of this omegaverse series! Please check "[Crystal Clear](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17707295/chapters/41772269)", my new fanfic in the series! It's a Victorian murder mystery with werewolves and omegaverse! If you liked this story, I think you will really like it as well!_

_Last chapters are usually the ones with the less amount of reviews but I would really like you guys to let me know what you thought of this chapter so if you liked it, please do tell me in a review! >.<_

_Also, continuing with the tradition for this series, here's the fanart I commissioned from amazing Diurnal Days:_

__

**_Arthur Kirkland is absolutely furious and he is definitely facing Alfred's behavior as a personal offense. Arthur can tolerate many things, but he definitely cannot tolerate being humiliated in front of the cameras by a nosy narcissistic boy._ **

**_"Yes, Jonathan Harker..." Arthur responds slowly, very patiently "I must admit I was distracted." he, then, slightly leans his head to Alfred’s side, revealing gradually to the camera the most cynical and yet subtly evil of smiles. "I was just observing that since you entered here, you can’t stop frowning, so I was worried that you were having a migraine or some mysterious forehead disease."_ **

**_This line comes with the impact of a wrecking ball. Lily-Mina needs to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter, and Alfred is so genuinely shocked by that that his eyebrows finally shift, jumping way up on his face, and he is even blushing a little._ **

 

* * *

 

Character profiles:

 

Alfred John Ford: Always felt like he was a bit different from other alphas because he only got crushes on other alphas and male betas. He became a huge fan of Arthur's works because he was really cool and when he discovered that Arthur also felt attraction other alphas and male betas, this admiration only grew. He felt really motivated knowing that someone like him could be so cool and live his best life. 

The cigarette packet that Arthur gave to him became kinda of a lucky charm to him. It also helps him with anxiety before a recording. He takes it everywhere.

Yep, the reason why Alfred's room walls have ripped wallpaper is because he took of the posters that were there. Also, the reason why Alfred lives in a simple apartment despite having the money to live in a better place is because Arthur always lived modestly and Alfred followed his example.  

At the first time they met, Alfred was really nervous and ended up sounding rude without meaning to. It may not seem so but as Arthur once said, "Alfred smiles a lot when he's nervous". 

Alfred only began to feel attracted to Arthur when they started working together. Before that, he kinda saw Arthur as this celestial being very far from mere mortals. 

And yes, Alfred gets used to Arthur's cats when they start to date. He even gets a favorite and spoils him all the time.

 

Arthur Kirkland: Mister anxiety and self-criticism itself. Arthur is genuinely a good person, who cares about others, but he can be an asshole in order to protect his own feelings. He had problems opening up to people and exposing himself to the world after getting disappointed so many times in his life. The whole thing with Francis rejecting him was harder on him than he lets out. 

Arthur has two moods. "It's best if I don't try at all" and "If I'm going to try, I'm going to be the very best". There's no middle ground, really. 

Nowadays, Arthur would identify as a pansexual.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where you can find more of Diurnal Days's amazing works:
> 
> https://diurnaldaysart.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, guys! Metal is almost over so I'm bringing you a new story, with a new omegaverse combination, new setting, new everything. I truly hope you will enjoy this one and give me feedback since it just got started and I need the incentive to keep writing it!^_^ 
> 
> Also, as always, my sincere thanks to littlemaple who helped me with the revision of this chapter!
> 
> PS: The titles of the chapters will always be based on the names of old movies btw! Just a little easter egg for you guys!


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